Taylor Swift Knew She Wouldn’t Get a Part in ‘Les Misérables’ After a ‘Nightmare’ Audition

While Taylor Swift is far more of a singer than an actor, she has been in several movies. She even had the opportunity to expand her resume with a part in Les Misérables. Swift explained that she could have tried out for one of two roles in Les Mis. After the audition, though, she knew there was no chance she’d get either part. Here’s why.

Taylor Swift said she was horrified during her ‘Les Misérables’ audition with Eddie Redmayne

Swift was under consideration for two roles in the 2012 adaptation of Les Mis.

“Basically, I was up for two roles,” she said on The Graham Norton Show (per People). “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.”

She went in for a screen test with Eddie Redmayne, who already had the role of Marius. Swift said Redmayne was one of her favorite actors, so she looked forward to the audition. But everything changed when she arrived.

“When I got there, they put me in full 19th-century street urchin costume and told me they were going to paint my teeth brown, and I was like, ‘You are going to do that after I meet Eddie Redmayne, right?’” she recalled.

She said she was too embarrassed to open her mouth around the actor. 

“They made me look like death, and it became a nightmare,” she said. “When I met Eddie, I didn’t open my mouth to speak!”

She walked away from the screen test feeling confident that the part would go to another actor. Samantha Barks took the role of Éponine, and Amanda Seyfried was cast as Cosette. 

Eddie Redmayne admitted the audition wasn’t great for him either 

Swift wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable during the audition. Redmayne, who was also a guest on Norton’s show, said he hadn’t realized he’d need to get close to Swift. Because of this, he was more worried about his breath than the scene.

“I thought we would just be singing off each other; I didn’t know we would be in each other’s arms,” he said. “My overriding memory of it is that I 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.”

Tom Hooper shared why Taylor Swift didn’t get the role in ‘Les Misérables’

Tom Hooper, the director of Les Misérables, said Swift’s anxiety-provoking screen test wasn’t the reason she didn’t get a part in the musical. Instead, he said her looks didn’t fit the character.

“She rather brilliantly auditioned for Éponine. I didn’t cast her, but I got very close to it,” he told Vulture. “Ultimately, I couldn’t quite believe Taylor Swift was a girl people would overlook. So it didn’t quite feel right for her for the most flattering reason.”

She went on to work with Hooper on the musical Cats.