Katie Holmes Almost Quit Acting Before She Got This Role

If things had gone differently, Katie Holmes may have never become the major Hollywood star that she is today.

Earlier this year, the 44-year-old star stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to discuss her newest projects, while also reflecting on a few of her earliest roles, including her star-making part as Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek. During this convo, Holmes confessed to Fallon that she considered quitting acting right before she secured the role of Joey.

Holmes's first professional role came in 1997, when she was featured in Ang Lee's drama The Ice Storm. The Ohio native told Fallon, “Well, I was 17, and I remember we came to New York, my mom and I, and we shot [The Ice Storm], and I thought, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do. Great.’’ She continued, “And then I went home, and I was putting myself on tape for different auditions, and I wasn't really getting anything and I thought, ‘Oh, well, that might be it, you know. That might be all there is.’”

At the time, Holmes felt content having secured one major part: “I was like, ‘You know what, that's OK. Like, that was an amazing experience, and I can tell my grandkids and I'll be fine.’” When Fallon asked why she wanted to quit, Holmes added, “Well, I mean, I wanted more jobs, but I was like, ‘Don't be, you know, greedy.’”

Luckily for Holmes though, she would secure her Dawson's Creek role only a year later, in 1998.

Recently, on the podcast Hollywood Gold, producers James Schamus and Ted Hope recalled Holmes's audition for The Ice Storm. Schamus said that Holmes read for the part of Libbets Casey, and “There was a momentary forgetting that she didn't already have the part because she was so perfect.”

Hope then recalled that Holmes told the casting directors that she was in California for only a few auditions, and if she didn't nab anything, then she would return home. “If she hadn't got cast in Ice Storm, Katie's career would not have been what it is,” Hope declared.

We're really glad it all worked out, Katie.

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