Comedian Whitney Cummings spoke on the most recent episode of her podcast Good For You about the “horror audition” she endured for a legendary Hollywood director’s recent film.
Cummings regaled the story to her friend, detailing the “core trauma” she experienced when asked to audition for a recent Francis Ford Coppola picture. Though she never named the film, it was clear Cummings was referring to Coppola’s Megalopolis, a passion project for the director which opened in September to disastrous reviews and even worse box office, grossing $13 million internationally against a $120 million budget, much of which came from Coppola’s own pocket. (Though ill-received, the film is so completely bonkers that it’s compulsively watchable and certainly worth viewing.)
“This was such a core trauma for me,” Cummings explained of the ill-fated audition. She went on to recall how Coppola specifically requested her to audition for an unnamed role. The comedian prepared “for days,” memorizing the scene she was to read and even spending hours having her hair and makeup done before heading to meet the legendary Godfather director.
But when she arrived at the audition, the energy was unlike any Cummings had experienced at similar events. “Everyone is so quiet. There’s no vibe of, ‘We’re at an audition. Hey, what’s up? Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you.’ It’s just so awkward,” she explained. “I go in, I’m like, ‘So, where do you want to start first?’ And [Coppola’s], like, ‘Oh no, no, we’re not going to do the scene.’ I was like, ‘Okay, okay. [That was] three days of my life.'”
Coppola then threw a series of improv suggestions at the actor, a tactic other Megalopolis stars have also spoken about enduring throughout their auditions. “He would just throw things at me,” she said, explaining she acted out scenes of a British mother sending her son off to war and an Australian housewife discovering her husband’s infidelity.
At one point, Cummings was unsure if the audition was even real. “Because I did the show Punk’d, I was like, if I’m being Punk’d, this is actually genius.”
The interaction between her and Coppola didn’t get any less awkward after she completed her performance. Admitting she was “so embarrassed” and about to cry, Cummings was shocked when Coppola offered her a set of parting gifts. “He gives me a signed copy of his new book. He signed it in front of me as if I had shown up to an autograph signing as if I wanted [it],” she marveled. “Like, thank you. And then gave me a bottle of Francis Ford Coppola wine. It was just so humiliating—that’s the only [word]—and so confounding in that moment.”
Megalopolis is available to rent and buy on Amazon Prime Video and all other major rental platforms. You can download episodes of Good For You on Spotify, and check out a clip of Cummings’ audition tale below.
@realwhitneycummings Horror audition story for Megalopolis ????????♀️
♬ original sound - WhitneyCummings
