Actor Simon Rex reveals that flunking an audition was the break that made his career. Rex’s said in an interview with People published Sunday that his audition for the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, starring Matt Damon, was “so bad” that Damon started “laughing.” He said he was called in for the audition after he was spotted on MTV, where he was a video jockey. “It is funny because I started off as a VJ announcing videos in the ’90s, and that’s why I’m an actor,” Rex said. According to the actor, director Gus Van Sant saw Rex on MTV and said, “‘I want that guy to read for my movie, Good Will Hunting.'" But the audition didn’t fare well, with Rex saying he “bombed” it. “I was reading the lines like a robot because I had never acted before. And Matt Damon was laughing at me as I’m reading the lines like this,” he said. Instead of landing a role, the now 51-year-old received helpful feedback from the director, who encouraged him to go to acting school. "And now here we are," he said. The VJ-turned-actor would go on to star in the sitcom What I Like About You, the Scary Movie film series, thriller Blink Twice, and most recently, the crime thriller film Americana that will premiere on Aug. 15.
Read it at People
