Taylor Swift says her Les Miserables audition was a nightmare

Taylor Swift as a cat in the ill-fated Cats — (Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Taylor Swift was up for a lead role in 2012's Les Miserables, but lost out due to a 'nightmare' audition experience.

"Basically I was up for two roles," Swift explained during her appearance on The Graham Norton Show. "I had the look of Cosette and the range vocally of Éponine, so it was established I was there for a good time but not for a long time. I wasn't going to get the role."

"When I got there they put me in full 19th Century street urchin costume and told me they were going to paint my teeth brown and I was like, 'You are going to do that after I meet Eddie Redmayne right?'" she continued. Unfortunately, they didn't.

"They made me look like death and it became a nightmare," Swift added. "When I met Eddie I didn't open my mouth to speak!"

It seems Redmayne was equally embarrassed at the audition. "My overriding memory of it is that I had pizza and garlic dough balls beforehand and all I could think about was my garlic breath while Taylor was dying in my arms and I was trying to show emotion."

Swift's screen test for Les Mis would later earn her the role Bombalurina in the 2019 film adaptation of Cats – also directed by Tom Hooper. The latter was both a critical and commercial failure, and is widely considered one of the worst films of all time. Swift is doing just fine, however, having sold over $1 million units in one week of her new album Midnights.

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.