'The Holiday': Jack Black and Jude Law Were Almost Replaced by Two Other A-List Stars

The Holiday is well-remembered, mainly due to its leading quartet: Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Jude Law. However, half of that leading cast was almost entirely different — if only Robert Downey Jr. and Jimmy Fallon's auditions had gone better. The Iron Man actor, 58, and Tonight Show host, 48, recalled their bursh with the now-classic Christmas movie during a recent interview on SiriusXM's The Howard Stern Show.

"We both got called in just as seat-fillers and we saw each other," Downey said of meeting Fallon at the audition. "Jack Black is getting his part and Jude Law is definitely getting my part, but [Nancy Meyers] needed someone to read with the gals, and we're sitting there going, 'It's about to happen for us.'" Fallon continued, "I was in a hotel room with Robert Downey Jr., Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, and we read this script. I said, 'If Jack Black says no to this movie, I'm so in. I'll do it for half his price.'"

Despite being "confident" they would score the 2006 film, the Marvel star recalled Winslet teasing him about his lackluster British accent. "I was like, 'I got to have a better British accent than Jude Law at this point,'" Downey said. "And Winslet said, 'That is the worst British accent I have ever heard.'" He quipped in response, "I was like, 'I'll check out now, but I'm taking the gummy bears from the minibar.'"

Fallon and Downey might not have ultimately booked the roles, but Fallon called it "mind-blowing" to read with the Oppenheimer actor, calling him "the best actor I've sat across from and did a scene with in my entire life." The late-night host gushed, "It was mind-blowing for me. I quit the business. I never went back." Fallon also joked he now has a tattoo of him and Downey "arm in arm, leaving dejected, not being cast in this movie."

While Downey said Meyer didn't think The Holiday was a good fit for the two, he insisted the audition wasn't a total flop. "Nancy said to both of us at the same time, 'This was great. It's just not a perfect fit. It's not a perfect fit,'" he recalled. Howard Stern disagreed, telling his guests, "That movie would have been so much better with the two of you guys."