Jake Gyllenhaal Says Peter Jackson Declared Him the Worst Actor Ever During Awful 'Lord of the Rings' Audition

Jake Gyllenhaal as Frodo Baggins? According to Gyllenhaal, that was a distinct possibility until the time came for him to unequivocally nail his audition for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings franchise. As the Demolition star recalled on Monday’s Tonight Show, that audition didn't exactly go as planned.

"There were so many bad ones," Gyllenhaal told Jimmy Fallon when asked if he had ever endured a bad audition. "I auditioned for Lord of the Rings. I got a call from all these agents. When agents are excited, it's really intense." The audition, Gyllenhaal recalls, started with some staging exercises and consisted of no dialogue.

Gyllenhaal is certain he botched that part. However, when asked to read actual lines, dude is even more certain he definitely botched that part. "[Jackson] turned to me and was like 'You are the worst actor I have ever seen,'" he remembered. Jackson also suggested Gyllenhaal fire all his agents.

Of course, the role of esteemed hypebeast Frodo Baggins ultimately went to Elijah Wood. As reported early Tuesday morning with a fair amount of urgency, Wood was the subject of much speculation at this year's SXSW festivities. As fate would have it, dude sounds like a super nice guy and was obviously the right choice to give Frodo some cinematic justice. No offense to our guy Jake, of course. Though Jake missed out on the Rings flex, at least he also narrowly dodged a Dude Where's My Car? co-sign.