Eddie Redmayne and Taylor Swift‘s audition for the 2012 screen adaptation of Les Misérables was not what either of them were expecting.
On this morning’s episode of The View, Redmayne, who played Marius in the film, recalled his awkward screen test with the pop sensation from more than a decade ago.
“It was an amazing experience,” he began. “It was for Les Misérables, and I had been cast as Marius and Taylor was screen testing for the part of Éponine. I’ll never forget it.”
“Taylor arrived, I hadn’t met her, and she had been taken in to look like Éponine, who was a street urchin,” Redmayne continued. “So when you’re meeting one of the most glamorous women in the world and she arrives with kind of mud in her teeth.”
According to the actor, the director of the movie had them sing a “love duet” together, while Redmayne was holding Swift in his arms.
“I hadn’t realized it was going to be quite so intimate and I had just been to a pizza restaurant and had shoveled a load of garlic bread into my mouth,” he said. “So I remember they were sort of wanting chemistry and I was trying to play chemistry with Taylor whilst keeping a distance.”
Swift previously offered her take on the audition on The Graham Norton Show, revealing that she was “there for a good time not a long time” as she knew she wasn’t going to get the part. However, getting to screen test with Redmayne was “an experience [she wanted] to have.”
Unfortunately, she didn’t get to meet Redmayne until she after had been taken in for hair and makeup.
“I’m like, ‘So you’re gonna do that after I meet Eddie Redmayne, right? That’s not something you do before. I get to meet people and then you do the brown teeth.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, no. Everybody’s gonna meet you with the brown teeth and we’re gonna do big circles under your eyes like you’re near death,'” Swift recalled. “I was like, ‘This has immediately become a nightmare for me.'”
Redmayne, who was sitting for the same interview, admitted to Swift that he was more worried about his breath smelling like garlic. But, luckily for him, she didn’t even notice.
“You were weeping and I just thought it was because of how I looked,” Swift joked, before adding, “It was nice that we were both struggling in that moment.”
The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.