Jake Gyllenhaal Completely Botched His ‘Lord of the Rings’ Audition
Based on his movie roles of late — the hardboiled detective in Prisoners; the sociopathic cameraman in Nightcrawler; the drug-abusing boxer in Southpaw — you’d be excused for assuming that Jake Gyllenhaal is an uber-serious, all-about-the-craft, capital-A Actor. You’d also be completely wrong. Case in point: this refreshingly loose, self-aware interview with Jimmy Fallon.
Gyllenhaal recounts his excruciatingly awkward audition for the role of Frodo in Lord of the Rings, during which he treated the Ring of Power prop with all the respect of a penny on the sidewalk, read his lines in his normal American accent, and caused Peter Jackson to facepalm repeatedly.
Even better, though, is his follow-up story about auditioning for the modern classic that is Dude, Where’s My Car? We’ll let you watch that part on your own, though — it’s way funnier without a spoiler.
