As Jake Gyllenhaal recounted on a late-night show, he auditioned for a role in Lord of the Rings. However, it went so poorly that he didn’t even come close to being considered.
As Jake Gyllenhaal (Road House, Brokeback Mountain) shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 22, 2016, he had auditioned for a role in Lord of the Rings. He wanted to become Frodo. But the audition went horribly.
Here you can see a trailer for the first film of the Lord of the Rings trilogy:
That’s why the audition was an absolute disaster
Jake Gyllenhaal recounted that he received a whole conference call from several agents who enthusiastically told him about Peter Jackson’s new project, the adaptation of Lord of the Rings.
They enthusiastically informed the actor that they immediately thought of him for a role: “And when they said they needed a hobbit, we thought: Jake!”
In this YouTube video, you can watch the interview yourself:
So he set out and went to the audition for the main role of the trilogy, the hobbit Frodo. While there, he received many instructions but no dialogue.
Moreover, Jake Gyllenhaal at that time had no idea what this one ring was about:
“We were just supposed to find the ring […], I didn’t quite understand it. I just went up, opened [the box and took the ring] and then asked: ‘Was that good?’ […] And Peter Jackson was just like [burying his head in his hands].”
More about Jake Gyllenhaal can be read here with our colleagues at Moviepilot: “26 million are gone”: Marvel star Jake Gyllenhaal allegedly ruined an entire movie with bizarre behavior
The missing accent was another issue
On top of that, everyone else had prepared a British accent – except for Jake Gyllenhaal. After he read the next scene with lines, the director turned to him and said: “You’re the worst actor I’ve ever seen.”
Then Peter Jackson asked if he was told to have an accent. When Gyllenhaal shook his head, the advice was: “Fire your agents!”
Afterwards, Jake Gyllenhaal humorously noted that he was so excited about the role that they had to pull him from the room while he kept shouting: “But I am a hobbit!”
In the end, Elijah Wood got the role of Frodo. He had created an audition video for the director, showcasing his talent with a wig, a homemade hobbit costume, and a British accent.
More about Lord of the Rings on MeinMMO: In the prologue of “The Lord of the Rings”, there is a macabre detail that didn’t make it into the final film
