Why was Taylor Swift’s audition for Les Misérables so bad?

Taylor Swift once fantasized about starring in Les Misérables alongside Eddie Redmayne, but that fantasy quickly turned into a nightmare. The 32-year-old pop star appeared on a Friday’s episode of The Graham Norton Show. Eddie Redmayne, who Swift met ten years ago during a screen test for Tom Hooper’s 2012 film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel, was also on the couch.

Taylor’s swift and miserable audition

“Basically I was up for two roles,” she explained to a captive UK audience. “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,” she continued. “[But] this isn’t an experience I am going to get again in my life.” She really was keen on working alongside Redmayne, someone she described as one of her favourite ever actors.

Swift’s sense of humour was on show throughout.

“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?’”

“They made me look like death and it became a nightmare,” she said. “When I met Eddie I didn’t open my mouth to speak!”

Redmayne’s garlic balls

Following her own version of events, the actor was quick to share his own embarrassment of the occasion.

“I thought we would just be singing off each other,” he said. “I didn’t know we would be in each other’s arms.

“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.”