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When it comes to landing our dream job, many of us resort to fibbing on our resume. We embellish our previous work experience, lie about our skills and sometimes even go so far as to invent past jobs and references!
Sometimes our prospective employers catch our lies and expose them, making it unlikely for us to ever find employment with them in the future. Other times we get away with our seemingly innocent lies completely. Still other times it becomes apparent to our employers that we have lied when it is too late to turn back.
Of course, resume embellishment is a universal phenomenon. Almost everyone does it, including famous Hollywood actors. Indeed, many Hollywood’s A-listers have, at one point or another, resorted to lying so as to snag the role of their dreams. They dealt with the consequences later and in some cases found that lying can get you much further than telling the truth. So, what are some of the most common lies told during Hollywood auditions? Certainly lies regarding one's age and horse riding abilities!
Mila Kunis Said She Was Going To Be 18 When In Fact She Was Only 14
If you’re a fan of That ‘70s Show then you probably know that Ashton Kutcher found the scenes where he had to kiss Kunis slightly weird because of their six years age difference! Ever wondered why the producers chose to disregard Kunis’s age? Apparently, they simply didn’t know how young she was!
Indeed, according to Just Jared, Kunis revealed in an interview with The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that she lied about her age so as to get the role of Jackie Burkhart – “Legally I was 14, but I told them I was a little bit older…I told them I was gonna be 18, which is not technically a lie, cause at one point…I was gonna be 18.”
Robert Pattinson Said He Went To Oxford
Robert Pattinson made a great Cedric Diggory in the 2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but it turns out that if he hadn’t lied about his education, he may not have gotten the role! Indeed, Pattinson admitted that back in the day – before he made it in Hollywood – he used to lie all the time when it came to auditions.
And it wasn’t exactly a small lie either – he’d say that he attended the prestigious Oxford University, according to Girlfriend – “I'd been unemployed for ages, and when I came to Los Angeles all the casting directors would ask what I'd been doing for the past few years. I'd say, 'Oh, I was at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art)' - if you've got an English accent you can get away with it. I'd say I went to Oxford, too. I did it for years."
Aidan Turner Lied About His Horse Riding Skills
You can no longer expect to rely solely on acting when it comes to making it in Hollywood. Indeed, the more special skills your resume boasts, the more likely it is that you’ll be hired. But what if you have no special skills? Then you take a leaf out of Joey Tribbiani’s book and lie, of course!
That is exactly what Aidan Turner did when he was asked whether he had any horse riding skills during his audition for the BBC series Poldark. Turner said that he had, after all, he rode quite a lot in The Hobbit.
However, later Karen Thrussell – Poldark’s executive producer – revealed that it came to light that Turned had lied early on in the filming process and thus the actor had to be sent to Yorkshire for intensive horse riding lessons, according to The Sun – “Actually he told me two weeks ago that he didn’t ride a lot in The Hobbit. He just lied to get the part.”
Chloe Grace Moretz Pretended To Be British
When it comes to landing roles, actors are not averse to changing their nationalities! To convince Martin Scorsese to give her the role of Isabelle in the 2011 historical drama movie Hugo the actress Chloe Grace Moretz pretended that she was British.
According to Mirror, Moretz said that she totally fooled the director and that the latter had no idea that she was American until it was much too late – “He flew Asa and I out to New York to audition in front of him and I spoke in a British accent the whole time. I'd lived in London for five months when I was filming Kick-Ass, so I knew the rhythm of the accent, which is one of the main things you have to pick up. There's huge difference in the way the British act and speak, and I stayed in character with Marty until the end. When I thanked him and walked out, he said, 'Hold on, did I hear an American accent?' I said, 'Maybe', and he replied, 'You tricked me'.”
Chris Hemsworth Lies About His Height All The Time
Chris Hemsworth is a handsome man but he is also a really big man, at least in terms of his height. Hemsworth is 6ft 3in tall (190.5cm) which means that sometimes he can’t go for the roles that he really wants to go for.
As such, Hemsworth finds that he lies quite a lot about his height, according to Radio Times – “There are certainly things I’ve wanted to go up for which I’ve been totally wrong for, physically. And I normally lie about my height [6ft 3in] and say I’m shorter. But it can go two ways. The brief for the audition for Thor said: must be over 6ft 1in, which I’d never seen before!”
Eddie Redmayne Lied About His Horse Riding Abilities And Only Realized He Made A Mistake When He Was Sitting On A Horse In A Lithuanian Forest
Eddie Redmayne is a talented actor, probably best known for his role of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything as well as for his role of Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts film series. He has won countless awards and had a ton of award nominations. And yet he too resorted to lying so as to land a role.
Indeed, when it came to auditioning for Elizabeth I, Redmayne said that he could totally ride horses. In reality, of course, he totally couldn’t. However, when his lie came out, it was too late to do anything because he was sitting on a horse in a Lithuanian forest, according to Radio Times - “They called action and I basically went ferociously down at 100 miles an hour. I almost killed myself, almost killed half of the crew. Tom Hooper comes from behind Helen Mirren with a huge loud speaker and goes, ‘You’re a f***ing liar, Redmayne.’”
Rachel McAdams Pretended To Like Horses When In Reality She Was Not Only Scared Of Them But Was Also Allergic To Them
Rachel McAdams is another actor that fibbed her way into landing a role. Just like many actors before her, her lie included horses but at least she did not claim that she could ride them with ease when she actually couldn’t. She simply said that she liked them. In reality, she was not only scared of them but also allergic to them.
According to Hollywood, McAdams confessed – “I said, ‘I love horses…’ (but) I’m so terrified and allergic.” During the filming of To The Wonder, McAdam’s eyes swelled up due to her allergy which made it hard for her to see. It’s amazing what actors will do to land movie roles!
Anne Hathaway Said She Could Ride A Horse Then Learned How To Do It In Two Weeks
Anne Hathaway could not ride a horse when she was auditioning for a role in Brokeback Mountain. However, when the director Ang Lee asked her if she could, Hathaway replied positively. And apparently, that’s exactly what her parents had taught her to do.
But at least now Hathaway is a great rider, according to Cinema Blend – “When I left the audition, the last thing Ang said was, ‘Oh, by the way, can you ride a horse?’ My parents have given me a lot of gifts in my life, and one of them is: If you’re ever asked if you can do anything, say yes. You can learn anything in two weeks if you’re motivated enough. So I’d never been on a horse, and I replied, ‘Oh yeah, I’m a really good rider.’ So I knew I had to learn to ride, and I got really, really, really good.”
Nicolas Cage Lied About His Age But The Casting Directors Knew He Was Lying
Nicolas Cage wanted the role of Brad in the 1982 comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High so badly that he ended up lying about his age. Since the movie had a few graphic scenes in it, the casting directors wanted to be sure that they hired only those who were either 18 years old or older.
Cage was 17 at the time and while he did not get the role of Brad – apparently the directors figured out that he was lying – he nonetheless managed to snag quite a large role. Still, it was not a happy time for him and his experience on set convinced him to change his last name from Coppola to Cage, according to Fast Times and Excellent Adventures – “I was surrounded by actors, whose names I won’t mention, who were not very open to the idea of a young guy named “Coppola” being an actor.”
Sandra Bullock Lied About Her Age
In order to snag the role of Diane Farrow in the 1992 romantic comedy Love Potion No. 9 the actress, Sandra Bullock had to pretend that she was slightly older than she actually was. Unlike most other actors who have lied about their age to land roles, Bullock was not actually underage at the time. Indeed, she was in her mid 20’s but pretended that she was 29 years old.
This wasn’t the only time she lied about her age – sometime later she also said that she was younger but this time her fib was exposed by Vanity Fair magazine. Bullock then justified her lie by saying, according to Mirror – “After a while, you have no idea how old you are because you've lied so many times. I always said I would never lie, but one time, when I didn't it worked against me. So I figure you just keep them guessing."
George Clooney Lied About His Acting Credits So As To Land His Very First Role
Way before George Clooney was one of Hollywood’s A-listers, he was trying to land his very first role. But according to the actor, that was impossible unless you were a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
This was before the internet was a thing and before people could verify things very easily so Clooney thought that he was safe when he lied to the casting director about starring in the 1982 drama Cat People. Unfortunately for him, the casting director had worked on Cat People too.
Still, she was sympathetic to Clooney, according to Times of India – “I remember lying to a casting director about Cat People. She was like, ‘You were in that?’ I was, like, yep, and she goes, ‘Because I cast that.’ I finally just said, ‘I can’t get in the SAG. Help me!’ She helped me get a job on a film called The Predator. The movie never came out. But I got my SAG card."
Liam Hemsworth Said He Could Play Volleyball Only To Find Out That It’s Actually A Really Difficult Sport
How hard can volleyball be? That’s exactly what Liam Hemsworth was thinking when he was asked by the casting team of The Last Song whether he could play it or not. However, he then learned the hard way that volleyball is a rather tough sport!
According to Collider, Hemsworth was so bad at volleyball that he even asked for a body double – “And, I turned up for the first day of volleyball practice and I was honestly really scared to shoot the volleyball part because it takes a lot of skills to play that game and I didn’t have them, at all. I said to Julie Ann, “I think we’re going to need a double,” but it’s hard to find someone as big as me.”
Rebel Wilson Lied About Her Age
Rebel Wilson is just one of many actors who has lied about their age in order to score a role. And yet her fib resulted in a huge scandal.
As you may recall, Wilson appeared in Pitch Perfect as a college student but that land that role she said that she was 29 years old. In actual fact, she was in her mid 30’s and while her age did not matter at all when it came to filming the movie – she was great in it – when it eventually came out that she was much older the world was scandalized.
So how did her age come out? Well, an Australian tabloid published a feature that claimed that one of Wilson’s classmates revealed that Wilson has been lying not only about her age but also about her name, upbringing and social class. This resulted in Wilson losing movie deals and she subsequently sued the tabloid. She won the case and $3.66 million.
Whoopi Goldberg Lied About Her Age
Whoopi Goldberg continues acting to this day but there is no doubt that she was most popular in the 1990’s. Indeed, at one point in the 1990’s, she was the highest paid actress of all time! However, things did not always go smoothly for her. For example, when Goldberg started off her acting career in 1975 – she was 20 years old at the time – no one would hire her because they deemed her much too young!
That seems almost unthinkable today and yet Goldberg said, according to Amazing African-American Actors – “I lied about my age for a long time because nobody would hire me to act. Everyone said I was too young. So, when I was twenty, I put six years on my life.”
Mark Ruffalo Lied About His Horse Riding Skills
When it comes to a career in Hollywood, it seems almost essential to possess horse riding abilities. And yet just like so many other actors before him, Mark Ruffalo did not bother learning horse riding. Instead, he thought that lying about it to Ang Lee – the director of Ride with the Devil - would be enough.
It turned out that it wasn’t and Ruffalo did not even have time to practice horse riding on his own, according to Paste Magazine – “I told him I could ride a horse. I didn’t lie to him directly, but it basically got to him. I had like two days. There was no learning how to ride a horse in two days. It was like a Sunday. No horse places are open. I showed up there, and I was like, “I can ride a horse. [...] It sucked. I’m not sure he’s ever really forgiven me for that, by the way. Otherwise, I would’ve been the Hulk a lot earlier.”
Laura Fraser Pretended She Could Speak German When All She Could Say Was "Ich Heisse Laura"
Apart from horse riding, another useful skill that allows many actors to get ahead in Hollywood is the ability to speak a foreign language. But what if you really want the role and can’t speak any foreign languages? You lie, of course, and hope for the best. That is exactly what Laura Fraser did when she said that she could speak German when she went for the role of Lydia in the hit TV series Breaking Bad.
Although to be fair, Fraser did speak some German. After all, she learned it in school, according to Dailymail. She just couldn’t say much, that’s all – “Then I got an email, “Do you speak German?” I was like, “Absolutely, I speak some German. I’ve done it in school, like I learned, “Ich heisse Laura.” Basic German. But then I thought, “Oh no, what’s coming?” It was corporate-speak German and it was a nightmare – it took me days to learn a little paragraph.”
Daniel Craig Pretended He Was A Skilled Horseman At The Start Of His Career
James Bond could certainly ride a horse but the actor Daniel Craig, who ended up becoming the sixth actor to play the secret agent, could not, at least not at the start of his career.
According to Film News, Craig was so worried he’d lose out on roles if he admitted that he couldn’t ride a horse that he often lied about his horse riding abilities – “The horse movies I had done before had so little money that I didn't have the chance to practice. I would just turn up to shoot and get on a horse pretending to know what I was doing - sometimes just to get the part.”
However, eventually, he got quite a lot of practice and became a rather skilled horseman, so much so that he apparently said that if he had any land he would have bought a horse of his own!
Carla Gugino Said She Was 14 When She Was Actually 16
Back in the day the actress Carla Gugino starred in the iconic 1989 comedy Troop Beverly Hills in which she played one of the young girls that were part of the Wilderness Girl Troop. At the time of auditioning, Gugino was 16 years old but knowing full well that she had more chances of landing the role if she was younger she lied and said that she was only 14 years old.
According to Canyon News, Gugino only confessed that she had lied when she knew she could not be fired – “I told the director like three weeks in, once I knew I couldn’t get fired, because we’d shot enough. I was like, ‘Just so you know, I’m 16.’ I thought for sure he was going to be like, ‘No big deal!’ But he was like, ‘Gasp! I never would have hired you if I knew you were 16.’”
George Lazenby Lied About Having Acted Before And Landed The Role Of James Bond
George Lazenby was the least suitable candidate to play the role of James Bond in the 1969 thriller On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. For starters, he had never acted before – he was actually a model. And he was also Australian and not British.
Still, Lazenby wanted the role and he managed to fool the producers by fabricating his acting resume. The producers further tested the actor in a series of tests that seem ludicrous today. For example, they tested his fighting choreography and had him be with women to ensure that he was straight. Apparently, eventually Lazenby cracked and told the film’s director Peter Hunt that he had never before acted but Hunt advised him to stick to his story if he wanted to play James Bond.
Laurence Fishburne Said He Was 16 When He Was Actually 14. By The Time The Film Was Completed However He Was 17!
When it came to landing a role in the 1979 war film Apocalypse Now, the actor Laurence Fishburne resorted to lying. At the time, Fishburne was only 14 years old and due to his age would have been in no way suitable to star in a war film.
As such, he said that he was 16 years old but in retrospect, he has confessed that he doesn’t think he was fooling anyone, according to Arogundade – “I think they knew. I don’t think I was fooling anybody.” Indeed, funnily enough, the team actually wanted the actor who played Fishburne’s role to be 18 years old, not 16. Still, the film took an extremely long time to complete and Fishburne was actually 17 years old when it was released!
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