Tom Felton recalls the 'worst three minutes of improv' with Anthony Hopkins in awkward audition
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Tom Felton doesn't need a remembrall to know that he'll never forget this mortifying audition.
The Harry Potter alum opened up about a passage in his recently-released memoir (titled Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard) in which he fabulously flubbed an audition with Anthony Hopkins for the 2012 film Hitchcock while on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on Tuesday.
"This was not my finest hour when it came to auditioning," Felton shared. "I got the sides very last minute. I knew I wasn't right for the role. I've never seen Psycho — the film was about the making of Psycho — I didn't know anything particularly well, but I knew I wasn't right for this."
Ian West/PA Images via Getty, Mike Coppola/Getty Tom Felton fabulously flubbed an audition with Anthony Hopkins.
That worried feeling followed him all the way to the studio. "I've very rarely called my agent before going into an audition and said, 'I really don't think this is for me,' but I did on that occasion," he remarked. "They said, 'Just go in as you always do. Just show your face, show you know the work, and trot on.'"
It was made worse, however, by who was waiting for him behind the audition room door. "I was whispered to by Anna Faris on the way to the auditions, 'He's in there.' Who's in there?" Felton joked. "And I sat down across from Sir Anthony Hopkins and he knew straight away that I didn't know what I was doing."
So, naturally, Hopkins decided to put Felton's knowledge to the test. "He decided to go off book. He was like, 'Let's put the scene down. Let's just test the water with the characters,'" the actor recalled. "And I proceeded to probably babble out the worst three minutes of improv in an awful American accent that anyone has ever seen."
His performance didn't exactly win over Hopkins. "He had a very graceful way of saying leave, which was, 'Thanks very much for your time,'" Felton shared. "I sheepishly tucked my tail and walked out that one."
The drama, which centered around the relationship between Hitchcock (Hopkins) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) while shooting the film Psycho, ended up rounding out its cast with Scarlett Johansson, Toni Collette, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jessica Biel, and Danny Huston.
Still, Felton has found a silver lining in the embarrassing encounter. "Technically I have worked with Sir Anthony!" he joked. "I'm not sure if that goes on my resume…"
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