Elizabeth Olsen Recalls ‘Awful’ Audition for ‘Game of Thrones’

Elizabeth Olsen is a genre fiction powerhouse now, but she missed out on one of the biggest roles in geek culture long before she became Wanda Maximoff. In a new interview on the Awards Chatter podcast this week, Olsen recalled her audition to play Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones. Fans will have to take her word for it when she says that it was “awful.”

Olsen said that she had an unceremonious audition for Game of Thrones before the franchise became a global sensation. She recalled: “I auditioned for Game of Thrones. I auditioned for, like, the assistant to the casting director in a small room in New York with just a camera on me and them reading the script. I was doing the Khaleesi speech when she comes out of the fire. It was awful. I didn’t get a callback.”

These days, Olsen can laugh about the experience since Emilia Clarke wound up being the perfect Khaleesi, and Olsen has had successes of her own. She also takes the failure in stride, noting that she “loves the nerves of an audition” and acknowledges that not every performer is right for every role.

“Auditioning has always been something I’ve enjoyed. I know other actors hate auditioning… You’re your own worst enemy in an audition. You’re either prepared, or you’re not prepared and then after that, nothing is in your control,” she said. “So it’s kind of fun for it to be this safe space of what you want to do with this part.”

After the interview, some fans on social media expressed relief that Olsen didn’t land this particular part. Some thought that Clarke was too perfect not to get the role, while others wanted to spare Olsen the disappointment of the show’s ending, and the alleged issues of working with Game of Thrones‘ infamous showrunners.

Olsen spoke about her audition to play Daenerys before back in 2019 when the Game of Thrones finale aired. At the time she told Vulture: “It was the most awkward audition I’d ever had. After she just burned. And she’s making this speech to thousands of people about how she’s their queen. They didn’t know if they wanted a British accent or not. So, you did it in both. It was terrible. Anytime someone says, ‘Bad audition story.’ That’s one I remember.”

You can see Olsen star in Marvel Studio’ WandaVision on Disney+ here, with a free trial for new users. Game of Thrones is still streaming on HBO Max.

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