Jake Gyllenhaal Recalls Peter Jackson’s Brutal Response to His Awful LORD OF THE RINGS Audition

I’ve always thought that Jake Gyllenhaal was a solid actor. Ever since I saw him in October Sky, I know he was going to have a successful career. He constantly seems to be making one great film after another. At one point he auditioned for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings for the role of Frodo. The audition didn’t go very well, and after it was over Jackson apparently told him that he was the worst actor that he’d ever seen.

While a guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Gyllenhaal talked about the experience and how his agents neglected to tell him that he needed to do an English accent for the role. This big oversight led to a pretty disheartening experience for any actor. The actor recalled:

“[Jackson] literally turned to me and said, ‘You are the worst actor that I have ever seen.’ He said, ‘Did anyone tell you you were supposed to have an accent?’ I was like, ‘No!’ And he said, ‘Well, fire your agents.’”

Damn! That’s a harsh response! I don’t know why any director would say that to an actor. It a complete confidence destroyer. As much as I’m a fan of Jackson, that was uncalled for, and an assholish thing to say to anyone. As you know, Gyllenhaal went on to make some amazing movies and give some incredible performances. Jackson then went on to make a bunch of mediocre films.

That being said, Elijah Wood was awesome as Frodo and as good as Gyllenhaal is, it’s hard to imagine him in that role.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives Jimmy a rundown of the roles he went for and lost because of bad auditions, including taking Dude, Where's My Car? too seriously.

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