Aaron Paul’s Embarrassing Attempt to Impress Tom Cruise, J.J. Abrams

On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Aaron Paul pulled an embarrassing story out of his hat as he described trying to impress J.J. Abrams on the set of Mission Impossible III. A friend of Paul’s told him that J.J. Abrams liked magic. So when Paul brought up the subject, Abrams assumed that he did magic.

To make matters worse, Tom Cruise walked onto set and Abrams introduced Paul as a magician and asked him to do a trick. Despite Paul’s protest, he was given a deck of cards. He tried to a card trick but failed. Abrams and Cruise were both sadly underwhelmed.

Paul had to later relive that embarrassing moment when he auditioned for Cloverfield. He explained, “J.J. Abrams was in the meeting, and then he brings up the Tom Cruise magic trick story. And then I fail my audition because all I could think about was that.”

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on NBC.

Watch John Krasinki’s awkward introduction to Matt Damon:

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