It's hard to imagine Jessie Buckley turning in anything other than a stellar performance. But as the Oscar-nominee revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, one particular audition went terribly sideways and left a lasting impression for years.
Buckley earned critical praise and captured audiences' attention for her role in Hamnet, earning the Irish actor an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Now, she's out promoting her turn in The Bride! opposite Christian Bale. The marketing campaign has been a chance to celebrate Buckley's talents and let the performer share some stories from her career prior to the spotlight she's in now.
During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Buckley shared the story of an embarrassing audition she once gave for the 2019 film adaptation of Cats. According to Buckley, the experience was so awkward that it ended up being “the worst audition” of her career.
Bad audition stories always make for good late-night interview content, and the Hamnet star's was no different. Buckley explained that the process involved trying to physically embody a feline, something she quickly realized she wasn’t very good at. In a vivid description of the moment, she recalled sweating under the pressure while attempting cat-like movements.
“It was so hot. I was sweating,” Buckley said, describing how she tried to mimic a cat by licking her paws and leaping around the room. At one point, she joked she felt like “a hoof of an Irish woman leaping across and licking her paws.”
Jessie Buckley dodged a bullet by missing out on Cats
In hindsight, missing out on Cats may not have been such a bad thing. The movie famously struggled with critics and audiences after its release. While it's star-studded cast included Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Taylor Swift, and James Corden, most of those performers probably wish they shared Buckley's fate and never made to the screen. The box-office flop also became a late-night TV punchline, so give credit to Jimmy Fallon for biting his tongue and not taking a shot at Cats after hearing Buckley's story.
The anecdote came up as Buckley attempted to clear up a misunderstanding about her feelings toward cats. Another interview had sparked online "controversy" suggesting the actress disliked the animals, especially compared to dogs. Addressing the chatter on the late-night show, Buckley insisted that wasn’t the case. “I need to clarify something for all cat lovers in the world,” she told host Jimmy Fallon. “I am a lover of cats.” She even joked that the idea she disliked cats had “weighed on me all day” and even made her feel sick.
But then again, maybe her experiencing jumping around an empty audition space was enough to turn her off cats for good.