On paper, you can put the name of an actor together with a project and think it’s going to be great. So, if you said Michael B. Jordan would have been up for a role in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” you’d probably imagine that director JJ Abrams would take the opportunity to add the actor to the cast in a heartbeat. Well, according to Jordan, Abrams had the chance, but because of the actor’s terrible audition, the role ended up going to someone else.
Speaking on the Just for Variety podcast, Michael B. Jordan talked about his worst audition he’s ever had. And while you would hope that it might happen on a low-budget indie that didn’t have much of an impact, for Jordan, the worst one happened on what was probably the biggest audition of his career.
“It was probably the ‘Star Wars’ audition that I had with JJ [Abrams], I think,” said Jordan. “It just wasn’t my best. It was probably my worst to date. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around some of the sides. When you’re reading for these high-level projects, there’s never really any specificity in the sides. Everything is super gray and a secret. Reading it through, I just couldn’t connect it. Definitely bombed that one, for sure.”
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He continued, “I’m pretty sure I ran out of there. [Laughs]”
Of course, having worked on major projects in the past, Jordan didn’t question why there was such a high level of secrecy to the audition process, where he didn’t even know which role he was reading for.
“You understand why it’s that way, but as an actor, it’s tough when they can’t give you a lot to go off of,” Jordan said.
Obviously, you can’t feel too bad for Jordan, as his career has done just fine and he probably didn’t need to have a role in ‘The Force Awakens.’ He would go on to star in “Creed” and “Black Panther,” both of which cemented his A-list status. But he probably wishes he had another shot at “Star Wars,” don’t you think?