Glenn Close recalls 'horrible and humiliating' American Gigolo audition
Glenn Close's audition for the 1980 film American Gigolo was "so horrible" and "so humiliating".
The eight-time Oscar nominee took time off from a Broadway show to fly out to Los Angeles and audition for a role in the Paul Schrader film, which follows a male escort who is accused of a murder which he did not commit, but she was thrown off her game as soon as she walked into the room and discovered John Travolta in a bed.
"There are about eight people sitting there, with Travolta in a bed. And I wanted to kill myself," she admitted on Variety's Awards Circuit podcast. "I had pages, I hadn't memorised it. And he didn't know his lines. And I didn't know what to do... it was so horrible. It was so humiliating.
"And I realised now, what the game was - I should have just tried to seduce him. It didn't matter what I said. It was like, 'what's the chemistry?' That was that was not a fun experience. And obviously, I didn't get the role."
Travolta also ended up not doing the film, which ended up starring Richard Gere and model Lauren Hutton.
Close, who is currently nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Hillbilly Elegy, also remembered another audition during which she read lines with a big star and he "put his hand on my knee and started rubbing it".
"And I thought, 'This doesn't have anything to do with the scene, or does it?'" she added.
The 101 Dalmatians star also had such a bad audition when she was trying out for the lead role in the play Albert Nobbs that she stopped halfway through.
"I stopped myself and said, 'I am boring myself to tears. So I must be boring you; I'm just going to go home,'" she recalled. "They called my agent and said that was the most interesting thing that happened to them all day.' And they wanted me to come back."
Close ended up getting that role and went on to star in the film adaptation, for which she scored an Oscar nomination.
