Lucy Hale is reflecting on one particularly awkward audition. The Katy Keene star recently opened up about the time she auditioned for the starring role in Fifty Shades of Grey, and why it was such an unnerving experience.
“I was very young,” the 31-year-old Katy Keene star told The Associated Presswhen asked about the time she read lines for the role of Anastasia Steele in the big screen adaptation of E.L. James’ erotic romance novel.
“It had to have been, well not 10 years ago, but it was a while ago, and I was mortified,” Hale recalled.
The first film in the Fifty Shades series was released in 2015, but casting and production kicked off in 2013, and Hale was among several big-name actresses who auditioned for the part before Dakota Johnson was eventually cast.
According to Hale, the audition “wasn’t actual scenes from the movie,” but rather, it involved her delivering a “very sexually forward monologue.”
“I didn’t really even know what I was saying in the audition,” Hale recounted. “I was a little naive about it all.”
While she didn’t get the part, the A Nice Girl Like You star said she felt the entire process was beneficial to becoming a better actress and professional.
“It was good for me because it scared the crap out of me to do an audition [like that],” Hale explained.
Hale has previously spoken about her audition, and got into detail about the explicit monologue when speaking with MTV News in July 2014.
“It actually was just me [in the audition]. It was a two-page monologue of exactly what you would think it would be,” she admitted. “Very uncomfortable. But it was sort of one of those things where you just had to go for it or you’re just gonna look lame — hopefully, I didn’t look lame.”
“The scene was, like, the girl telling her friends about some sexcapade she had, but it goes into extreme detail and uses the word ‘sperm’ a couple times,” Hale added. “I was like, ‘I don’t know guys, I have to go home to my grandparent’s house in a few months at Christmas, I don’t know if I can do this.'”
