Watch the four actors dish on their worst audition experiences as part of EW's Breaking Big panel at the 2023 SCAD Savannah Film Festival.

Their careers may be taking off in big ways, but that doesn't mean they're immune to bad auditions.

Speaking as part of EW's Breaking Big panel at the 2023 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, up-and-comers Maddie Ziegler, Taylor Zakhar Perez, Chloe Coleman, and Aria Mia Loberti got candid with EW editor-in-chief Patrick Gomez about their audition horror stories.

Coleman, seen recently in Pain Hustlers and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, opened up about her audition for the sci-fi thriller 65 alongside Adam Driver. She was slated to do a chemistry read on Zoom with Driver, but the audition came during an inopportune heat wave in Los Angeles. According to Coleman, it was 118 degrees and her air conditioning went out right before the audition.

"I was basically half alive," she said. "It was so hot in my house. We were outside in our garage where the only AC was working. It was miserable. I could not think." Though she said she regretted not leaving and going to do the audition somewhere with working air conditioning, she did ultimately get the role playing Driver's daughter in the film, so it all worked out. Still, Coleman said she learned a valuable lesson from the experience: "I think making sure you're in a good mindset, in a good space before you do a chemistry read, especially on Zoom, make sure you're comfortable and don't do what I did. That was not a fun process, not a fun experience."

For Ziegler, the experience that came to mind was "not terrible" but was one that left her feeling intimidated nonetheless. The actress and dancer had just performed two nights at the Hollywood Bowl as part of Sia's world tour when she had an audition for an unnamed project with a "very scary casting director."

The Fitting In star recalled feeling prepared and confident for the audition, until she walked in and the casting director told her, "I actually just watched you perform at the Hollywood Bowl last night, so don't mess it up." "My mind went blank because I just was so intimidated and I was 14 and I was so nervous, and within that moment, I literally lost everything," Ziegler explained. "I didn't have my pages in hand and I was just staring at her with nothing. I was like, 'I am so sorry.' And then she handed me lines and I was so embarrassed in that moment.'"

She continued, "That's a little intimidating for someone to do. And I don't know, it's just scary.... I think a lot of people in the industry sometimes purposely try and mess with you to see if you can still be on and ready. And in that moment, I totally crumbled. It wasn't great."

Meanwhile, Perez — who also spent some of his time at the Savannah festival touring the new state-of-the-art backlot at SCAD, which also opened a second casting office this fall — recalled the time he auditioned for a "Scream-y, The Omen-type of project." The problem? He had to do the audition in an office setting, where "everybody's still going about their day, making phone calls, chatting."

"And I did it, but it was a scary moment because there's 30 people in the office, you're screaming, there's a fake something chasing after you. There's sheets that have been torn off the wall because you're on the wall, and so you just have to be ready for all this stuff," the Red, White & Royal Blue star said, likening the experience to the exhausting audition sequence Emma Stone's character in La La Land goes through. "It's a lot. So I would just say the nightmare is auditioning," he added.

Of course, it's not all bad. Loberti has had an entirely different take on auditioning than the rest of the group because she's yet to step into a casting room. "Guys, I've only joined the industry post-COVID, so I've only done Zoom ever because it's just not an option [in person]," the All the Light We Cannot See newcomer explained. "Everything I've done is on Zoom, and so it's usually [my best friend's] either my reader or the casting director is the reader, and I'm like, everything, everyone's been lovely. So what the hell?"

Check out the full panel video here

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