Taylor Swift revealed that she did a screen test with Eddie Redmayne for Les Miserables! The 32-year-old singer didn’t make the cut as the audition quickly turned into a “nightmare” experience.
Speaking about the occasion, Taylor said on the Oct. 28 episode of The Graham Norton Show, which also included Eddie, “Basically, I was up for two roles. I had the look of Cosette and the range vocally of Éponine, so it was established I was there for a good time, but not for a long time. I wasn’t going to get the role.”
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Meanwhile, Cosette went to Amanda Seyfried and Éponine was played by Samantha Barks in the 2012 film adaptation directed by Tom Hooper.
“But they asked if I would like to go to London to do a screen test with Eddie, who is one of my favorite actors, and I thought, ‘This isn’t an experience I am going to get again in my life,’ so I said yes,” the singer continued.
When she arrived at the set, she was put in a “full 19th-century street urchin costume” that included brown teeth. And she recalled, “I was like, ‘You are going to do that after I meet Eddie Redmayne, right?’…But no, they made me look like death and it became a nightmare. When I met Eddie I didn’t open my mouth to speak.”
taylor talking about meeting eddie redmayne during les miserables audition pic.twitter.com/tkbapeqxPq
— ivy (@ohhhhherewego) October 28, 2022
Taylor, who was only 22 at the time, wasn’t the only one who was nervous. Eddie, now 40, recalled feeling awkward singing alongside Taylor and embracing at the same time because they had never met before.
“I thought we would just be singing off each other — I didn’t know we would be in each other’s arms,” the Oscar winner added.
“My overriding memory of it is that I had had pizza and garlic dough balls beforehand, and all I could think about was my garlic breath while Taylor was dying in my arms and I was trying to show emotion,” he hilariously said.
The film, which was based on Victor Hugo’s French novel of the same name, went on to win three Academy Awards in 2013, including Best Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway, who played Fantine, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
It was also nominated for Best Picture, but Ben Affleck’s Argo won the award that year.
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Despite not making the cut, Taylor had a significant year in 2012 because she released one of her career-defining albums, Red, which she re-recorded last year in a new edition dubbed Taylor’s Version.
During her original run, she continued to release music until 2013, when she embarked on a massive world tour that began that spring.
