Hollywood magic happens in unexpected moments! Join us as we explore the most memorable and heartwarming stories of actors discovering they've landed their dream roles, from unexpected phone calls to emotional revelations that changed their lives forever.
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00:00This is either it or the worst way ever to let someone down.
00:05Welcome to Ms Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the times when actors
00:10first found out they got their famous roles.
00:13So I did my show and he said, oh, I'm directing Color Purple, I'd like you to be in.
00:18They're like, oh, okay.
00:21Number 10, Margaret Hamilton, The Wizard of Oz.
00:24I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.
00:30In 1939, MGM's fantasy musical became a timeless classic.
00:35But for the character actress Margaret Hamilton, it was a mixed blessing at first.
00:40Her dual role as the Wicked Witch of the West and Almira Gulch
00:44may have established her as an American icon,
00:47but she wasn't totally thrilled with her role when she got it.
00:50And we can't go against the law, Dorothy. I'm afraid poor Toto will have to go.
00:54Now you're seeing reason. Here's why I'm taking him in, so he can't attack me again.
00:59No, no, I won't let you take him. You go away, or I'll bite you myself.
01:03Dorothy!
01:05You wicked old witch.
01:06Hamilton was a big fan of L. Frank Baum's books when her agent told her they wanted her for the
01:12movie. But when she expressed some disappointment at being cast as the witch, her agent's succinct
01:18replies stopped her in her tracks. What other part could Hamilton possibly play?
01:23They're sort of interested in you for a part in The Wizard of Oz. And I said, oh, gosh,
01:28think of that. I said, I love that story from the time I was four years old. What is it?
01:33And he said, well, the witch. And I said, the witch?
01:40And he said, then he said the final thing. He said, yes, what else?
01:44Number nine, John Ratzenberger. Cheers.
01:47I drink steaming hot pots of tea on the hottest days of the year to balance out
01:52the inside and outside temperatures. Conversely, drinking an ice cold drink on a cold day
01:57actually results in a more comfortable body temperature.
02:00The story of how the Boston bar's know-it-all got cut is a testament to creating your own
02:05opportunities in the business. Actor John Ratzenberger knew his audition for Cheers
02:10hadn't gone well.
02:11So I was walking out the door, literally walking out the door. And I don't know whether this is my
02:17fantasy or it happened in reality, but I could have sworn that
02:21my 8x10 was going like this into the wastebasket.
02:24Instead of going home and licking his wounds, he suggested they needed another character to round
02:29out their ensemble of faithful bar patrons. Ratzenberger pitched a character who pretended
02:35to know everything.
02:36But that was the writer part of me asking. And it was Glenn who said, what are you talking about?
02:42I said, every bar that I've ever been in, in New England anyway, has some horse's ass
02:49who pretends to know everything. But everybody defers to that person anyway.
02:54Two days later, he got the call that he'd won a role
02:57that didn't even exist before he walked into the room.
03:00Cliff Clavin's improvised explanations for everything became one of the show's running jokes.
03:06Because I knew what I was doing, but I needed to make them laugh before I left.
03:10So that I could regain my dignity. Because it was just in shatters all over the carpet
03:18from my audition. So that's the only reason I did it. Two days later, I get a call.
03:22Did, wait, but did you get laughed? Did they laugh?
03:25Oh, yeah, yeah.
03:26Number 8. Henry Cavill, Man of Steel
03:29What's the S stand for?
03:34It's not an S. On my world, it means hope.
03:39If you ever doubted the hunky actor's nerd credentials,
03:42you have to hear what happened when he found out he'd won the role of Superman. Or rather,
03:48you have to hear what he was doing when he got the good news from the Man of Steel creative team.
03:54Henry Cavill ignored his phone when Zack Snyder tried to contact him.
03:58In his defense, he was playing World of Warcraft at the time.
04:01The first time you got the call that you could play Superman, what was your reaction?
04:05Uh, well, the first time I got the call, I actually missed it. I was,
04:12I was playing World of Warcraft at the time. And I had my priorities straight.
04:16Luckily, he did eventually answer the call to wear the S.
04:20But sometimes the dungeon is way more important than answering the phone.
04:25It was an important part of a particular dungeon that I was going through.
04:28And it's cool now that I'm Superman.
04:32Yeah.
04:33And, uh, and then I looked across at the last moment,
04:36and I saw Zack Snyder's name on the phone. So I grabbed the phone and then missed it.
04:39Right.
04:39And so I called him back immediately and said, I'm really sorry. I was saving someone's life.
04:44Number seven, Auli'i Cravalho, Moana.
05:03To cast its newest addition to the Disney Princess brand,
05:06the makers of Moana honored the character's ethnic background
05:10and search for a young actress to fit the role.
05:13They found Auli'i Cravalho, who was perfect.
05:17I am Moana.
05:19When I first heard that there was going to be an audition
05:22to potentially play the role of Moana, I thought, no way that can be me.
05:27Not only did she sing and act the part brilliantly,
05:30but she even looked like the character as designed by the animators.
05:34And I had a whole bunch of fun. Then I got a call back.
05:38I was told that I would have to do more ad-lib.
05:40The creative team invited Cravalho to one last meeting under the pretense
05:44of doing another callback, but they only did it to get her live reaction on camera.
05:49She does not disappoint.
05:51We're here, collectively. Jamie here.
05:53And Osnaught.
05:55And Rod too.
05:56And we're not pretending.
05:57Not pretending, no. We want you to be the voice of Moana in our movie.
06:01We really do. We really do.
06:03Thank you so much.
06:05You are going to be Moana.
06:10Seeing Cravalho's reaction and her phone call to her ecstatic mother
06:14is like watching Hollywood dreams come true.
06:17I got cast as Moana.
06:21Are you serious?
06:22Yeah!
06:23And then it was just, yeah!
06:26That was very sneaky.
06:27That was sneaky!
06:30Number 6. Tom Holland. Captain America. Civil War.
06:34The British actor's Labrador Retriever energy was on full display
06:37in his interview with Ellen DeGeneres.
06:40So I am honored that I am your first American talk show.
06:42And this is the best one to start with, I think.
06:47He achieved a whole new level of fame when he was announced
06:50as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man.
06:53Apparently, Marvel's social media broke the news on Instagram
06:57before the director could call him.
06:59One day Marvel just posted on their Instagram,
07:02go to our website to find out who the new Spider-Man is,
07:05and that's it. I just found out online. They didn't call me up or anything.
07:10So when he got the role of a lifetime, he found out with the rest of the world.
07:14It's kind of fun to know that even in Hollywood,
07:16the corporate culture is still based on just a bunch of people making decisions
07:21without communicating with each other.
07:23And my brother Harry, who's pretty savvy with technology and stuff,
07:26was like, dude, they've probably been hacked, bro.
07:27Like, they would call you, right? They would let you know.
07:31And so I called my agents. They were like, oh, this is amazing.
07:34And then Kevin Feige finally rang me and said,
07:37I've got some great news. You're going to be Spider-Man.
07:39I was like, I know, Kevin. You put it on Instagram.
07:44Though she was a fan of Alice Walker's heartbreaking historical novel,
07:48Whoopi Goldberg never thought her offer to play literally any part
07:52in a film adaptation would be taken seriously.
07:55The book on National Public Radio.
07:58And so I pulled over my daughter, and I was listening to her read.
08:01And then I wrote her a letter. And then I got to New York,
08:03and there was a purple envelope waiting for me saying,
08:07listen, I know your work. I live up in the Bay Area.
08:10So I've passed on your information, which I thought was kind of wonderful.
08:13But director Steven Spielberg took her very seriously.
08:17He was a fan of her comedy work and saw the potential in her.
08:20Goldberg was stunned.
08:22Let me do some stand-up for you, just so you can, but I need an audience.
08:26And he said, oh, there'll be like seven or eight people.
08:28And I walked in, and there were like 40 people there, and
08:31Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson and Ashford and Simpson and all these people.
08:35And I'm thinking, this is really cool. A little scary, but very cool.
08:39And Whoopi did this wonderful routine, had us all on stitches.
08:41She knew she could act, but doing a movie and a leading role in a major big budget movie
08:47was not exactly what she had in mind.
08:49Recalling the moment years later,
08:51Goldberg remembers telling Spielberg she might suck in the role.
08:55I think you'll be, I swear it could be really bad, you know, because I don't do this.
09:00You know, and he said, well, no, I think it'll be all right.
09:03He said, man, if it sucks, you're going to be really in trouble.
09:06You've sucked before. It's the worst thing that can happen.
09:09Goldberg became one of the few actors to earn
09:12an Oscar nomination for their cinematic debut role.
09:16Number four, Ryan Gosling, The Notebook.
09:19Few actors are celebrated for their looks, talent and natural charisma like Ryan Gosling.
09:24So you can imagine our surprise and maybe even his when the director of The Notebook called,
09:29telling him he got the part of Noah.
09:31Cassavetes' choice for Noah was anything but conventional.
09:35Ryan Gosling had been building a career playing dark, intense characters, not romantic leads.
09:42And that is a cut. Settle, keep it quiet, please.
09:45On the other hand, dark and intense works for love scenes, too.
09:49His getting the role wasn't the shocker, though. It was the reasoning.
09:53The director, Nick Cassavetes, had him over to his house and told him straight.
09:58Gosling had the part, but it was because he had what no other actors had.
10:03He wasn't spectacularly handsome or hip like the other Hollywood actors.
10:07I just thought he was just, sorry Ryan, but weird enough in a certain respect that you
10:12would believe that he would know that he could take one look at somebody and
10:15know that that was the person for them.
10:17That's a backhanded compliment if ever we heard one. Given the success of the movie
10:21and his career since, whatever Cassavetes found unconventional about him back then
10:26seems to have paid off.
10:28At one point, I found myself on the phone and I just had to
10:31hang up because I was watch re-watching Daily.
10:33I said, my God, these two are really good and heartbreaking.
10:36Number three, Frank Silva, Twin Peaks.
10:40Welcome to the killer's lair.
10:45The long-haired evil spirit, Bob, wasn't cast in the traditional sense.
10:50Actually, Frank Silva was a longtime collaborator of writer-director David Lynch,
10:55but his work was generally done behind the scenes as a set decorator.
10:59Lynch was inspired to include Silva in one shot of the series pilot,
11:04looking menacing near murder victim Laura Palmer's bed.
11:10Even then, neither one knew when or if the shot would make it into the final cut.
11:20Actually, it was only when Silva was accidentally captured in a shot that
11:25Lynch finally realized Silva would become a running performer of the show.
11:29At that moment, the entity known as Bob was born,
11:32and Silva went from crew member to on-screen villain.
11:36You go.
11:42He's wrong.
11:46Number two, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, Wicked.
11:50It took two decades to get a Wicked film off the ground,
11:54but finding the right pair of actors for Elphaba and Galinda had to be half the challenge.
11:59Ariana Grande has been adamant that Galinda was her dream role for many years.
12:04I found a tweet that you put out in 2011, by the way.
12:09It said, love seeing Wicked again, amazing production.
12:12Made me realize again how badly I want to play Galinda at some point.
12:16Cynthia Erivo had connected with the show's score long before she had ever seen it.
12:21There is no way we could do this thing without you.
12:23I don't know what planet you have dropped in from,
12:25but we would be really lucky to have you.
12:26And I burst into tears, and that is the moment where I found out, yeah.
12:30To break the news to them, director Jon M. Chu and the producers set up
12:35separate Zoom calls and hit the record button.
12:38I'll never forget when we were like, we're making the offer,
12:42they're going to find out. And I was like, I want to tell them first.
12:44And I think the world needs to see more of you. And I think
12:50we would love for you to be our Elphaba in Wicked.
12:54Thank you so much.
12:55Their tearful reactions to finding out they won the roles were captured for the world to see.
13:00We want you to be our Galinda the Good in the Wicked freaking movie.
13:06I love her so much. I'm going to take such good care of her. Thank you so much.
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13:26Number one, Henry Thomas, E.T. the Extraterrestrial.
13:30The leading role of this sci-fi fantasy film needed to have access to a wide range of emotions,
13:35be able to cycle through them very quickly, and be grounded enough to not get too upset.
13:41Apparently, the movie's star, Henry Thomas, wasn't a shoo-in.
13:44He came a long way from his first audition.
13:47Well, he's mine and he lives with me and he likes me and he wants to stay here.
13:54He likes it here.
13:55Well, we wouldn't hurt him or anything. All we want to do is talk to him.
14:00But I don't want you to take him away.
14:02But his last callback for Elliot, the boy who finds a new friend in an alien creature,
14:07is available almost in full. He's tested with the character's most emotional scene.
14:12You know, I've had to talk to your mom about it.
14:15She knows that the government has the right to do it.
14:20And who told you all this?
14:22After bringing the entire crew to tears,
14:24director Steven Spielberg flat-out tells Thomas the part is his.
14:28Okay, kid, you got the job.
14:32Everybody in the room was in tears.
14:36I just remember Tony the Henry and saying, okay, kid, you got the part.
14:39What are some of your favorite casting stories? Tell us in the comments.
14:43She earned this, overcoming her own shadow to do this.
14:48She was our Oni Glinda at that point. There was no turning back from there.
14:52Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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