Lucy Hale's Shocking Audition for Hannah Montana

Lucy Hale almost had the best of both worlds.

In fact, there’s a universe in which the Pretty little Liars star didn’t spend years hunting down the mysterious blackmailer “A,” as she recently revealed the surprising role she auditioned for during her early days in Hollywood: Miley Cyrus’ now-iconic superstar alter-ego.

“Oh my gosh, I’ve auditioned for Hannah Montana,” Lucy said in a March 7 interview with BuzzFeed, adding she was 14-years-old when she read for the Disney Channel part. “I still lived in Tennessee at the time, so this would have been…21 years ago. It was a couple years before they had cast Miley in it.”

At age 35, she didn’t reveal much about her audition, but she emphasized its significance to her growing acting career. “That audition was the one that made me decide to become an actress,” she recalled. “I can still remember it clearly – it was quite exciting.

Of course, then-13-year-old Miley—who initially auditioned to play Emily Osment’s BFF character Lily—secured the role as Hannah Montana in the series, which from 2006 to 2011.

As for Lucy, she had small appearances in several different shows before debuting her major role as Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars in 2010.

The Hating Game alum also candidly spoke about her other auditions over the years, including Pitch Perfect, Drake & Josh, Hairspray, Fifty Shades of Grey, and the latest horror gem, The Substance.

“Because I’ve lived in L.A. [for] almost 20 years, everyone who gets [a certain] role is always meant to be their thing,” she noted to BuzzFeed. “But for every ‘yes’ to an audition, there’s like a lineup of 200 that you heard a ‘no’ for. I should probably go back [in my] journals and look at all the things I’ve auditioned for.”

Expanding her acting repertoire, Lucy shared that despite the growth in her career, she maintains a tender affection towards her costars from “Pretty Little Liars” – with the exception of the enigmatic character “A”.

In an interview with TopMob News last April, Lucy expressed that she communicates with everyone. At various stages of our lives, our paths have crossed and then reconnected. However, we all manage to stay in contact with one another.

Keep reading to see other iconic roles that almost went to other actors….

The Star Trek actor lost out on the role, which ultimately went to Ben McKenzie, due to his bad acne.

“I had awful skin as a teenager,” he said on Josh Horowitz‘s podcast Happy Sad Confused in May 2024, “and then I when I came after college, my skin started breaking out again.”

“I was offered the role and it’s probably my biggest regret, you know, on passing,” the American Pie alum revealed in a 2021 SiriusXM interview. “I think I was in a phase of, at the time—it sounds so obnoxious to say right now—but at the time it was like, ‘Okay, do I want to do TV?’ I don’t know that I was quite ready to go that route.”

Casting director David Rapaport told EW, “Before Penn was involved, I desperately wanted Alden Ehrenreich to play Dan,” but producers thought the 5-foot-9 actor was too short to play the role of Blake Lively‘s love interest. So the role went to Penn Badgley, who is just about the same height as Ehrenreich, according to the internet.

In his memoir published in 2014, Peter Lowe admitted turning down the role of McDreamy on the popular TV show “Grey’s Anatomy.” This topic resurfaced during an episode of Marc Maron’s podcast. Jokingly, Lowe said that refusing the part cost him around $70 million. He explained that he watched the pilot when it first aired and was not fond of being referred to as “McDreamy,” so he decided not to take the role.

Sherlock and Doctor Strange star Benedict Cumberbatch auditioned for the role of vampire Bill Compton back in the day. Stephen Moyer went on to land the part.

Before she was an Oscar nominee, Jessica Chastain read for the role of Sookie Stackhouse. The part eventually went to Anna Paquin.

A 17-year-old Jennifer Lawrence read for the part of werepanther Crystal Norris, and almost got the part, but her age played a factor in the part going to another actress. Lindsay Pulsipher landed the gig.

Saved By the Bell and Beverly Hills, 90210 veteran Tiffani Thiessen said she auditioned for the part of Rachel on Friends, but she was too young for the role.

Katherine Langford on Riverdale? It almost happened. The Golden Globe-nominated star of 13 Reasons Why auditioned for the role of Betty Cooper, according to Riverdale star Camila Mendes. “I remember we went out and we got falafel with a guy who was auditioning for Archie,” Mendes told EW.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing Capeside’s resident NYC transplant, but as creator Kevin Williamson revealed to Entertainment Weekly, the role of Jen almost went to future Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl, thanks to pilot director Steve Miner, who brought the star of his 1994 film My Father the Hero to Williamson’s attention. “She looked slightly older at that time. Even though she was younger, I just think she was more mature,” Williamson recalled. “She gave a great audition, I remember we were all sort of like, ‘Wow, she’s good.'”

The role of Dawson Leery’s lovesick BFF Joey Potter turned Katie Holmes into a star, but the part almost wasn’t hers. As creator Kevin Williamson admitted to Entertainment Weekly, the role was Selma Blair‘s to eventually lose. “I really loved Selma until, of course, I got the infamous videotape from the basement of the Holmes family in Toledo, Ohio,”he said of Holmes’ last-minute audition. “And when that video showed up, it changed my whole life.”

The House and Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce actress was so close to taking on the iconic role of Carrie Bradshaw that she even had a completed contract. In the end, however, she was just the back-up to the producers’ first choice, Sarah Jessica Parker. “I was either going to do it or not. It all depended on whether she said yes,” Edelstein said. “My contract was complete. I was waiting.” While we struggle to imagine a world in which SJP is not Carrie Bradshaw, Edelstein actually makes a lot of sense.

Initially, The CW wanted Ashley Olsen as our favorite beautiful blonde Upper East Sider, casting director David Rapaport told Buzzfeed, but he only had eyes for Lively. “I was terrified we wouldn’t get her or they wouldn’t like her because, honestly, the show lived and died on her and I had absolutely no other ideas,” he said.

The CW wanted future Dancing With the Stars champion Rumer Willis as the Gossip Girl lead, but casting director Rapaport knew she wasn’t right for the role (and would eventually cast her on 90210). “I love Rumer,” he told Buzzfeed. “She’s grown into quite an amazing actress and person, but that, to me, was based on protecting the investment of a television show where creatively, these lesser-known girls really captured the essence of the show and carried it for six years.”

Before Keke Palmer was cast on Fox’s hilarious horror comedy Scream Queens, she was in the running to play Iris West on The Flash, a role that eventually went to Candice Patton. “We had seen Candice initially, but I think we were too early on in the process to cast her so we ended up testing Keke Palmer and this other girl, but they felt a little too young next to Grant [Gustin],” casting director David Rapaport told Buzzfeed. When he brought Candice back, “it was magic.”

Iwan Rheon told The Telegraph that when the Game of Thrones pilot was being cast, he made it to the final two for the role of Jon Snow. Of course, Rheon went on to play Ramsay Snow, a.k.a. season 5’s most hated character, while Kit Harington cemented a place in our hearts as Jon. We can’t even bear to imagine it any differently, so we just won’t.

After working with the Guardians of the Galaxy star on the final season of The O.C., Josh Schwartz revealed Pratt was his first choice for the role that eventually went to Zachary Levi. “He was the first guy I wanted to play ‘Chuck’. But as fate would have it, he was destined to guard the galaxy, not the Buy More,” Schwartz revealed. “And might I add, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”

The Dawson’s Creek veteran met with Orange Is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan early in the show’s development, Kohan revealed. Holmes, who is an admitted fan of the series, had “other things to do,” Kohan told TopMob News. “And also in the beginning no one knew what this was.”

Indeed, I must say that Cobie Smulders’ revelation leaves me intrigued. If Robin Scherbatsky had been cast as Kate Austen instead, our beloved “How I Met Your Mother” and “Lost” might have shared an entirely different narrative. What a fascinating thought!

Both she and Evangeline Lilly were “testing for Lost,” Smulders revealed to TopMob News in 2014. “She owes a lot to me because I went in and I bombed the audition. And she was like, ‘Thank you!'”

Everybody knows The Good Wife is Julianna Margulies‘ show, but that almost wasn’t the case. The Emmy winner revealed the studio wanted Ashley Judd and Helen Hunt before she got the gig.

It’s hard to picture anyone else playing the vampire slayer in Sunnydale, but Sarah Michelle Gellar almost got the lead role in the WB series instead of the ex-wife of Tom Cruise. However, Holmes decided to attend high school instead, and as a result, Sarah Michelle Gellar was cast.

The role that eventually went to Edie Falco was originally offered to Lorraine Bracco, but the Oscar nominee said she had already done that part in Goodfellas and wanted to try her hand at something new.

Before she was breaking records on Fox’s Empire, Taraji P. Henson revealed she auditioned to be Scandal‘s ultimate fixer, Olivia Pope. “When I went in to read for Shonda Rhimes, in my mind I was like, ‘This is Kerry Washington. Why am I even in here?'” she said. “It was hers.”

Wouldn’t it be intriguing to speculate about Agent Scully living within the walls of Downton Abbey? Surprisingly, this was almost a reality, but the actress from The X-Files declined the offer, which eventually landed in the hands of Elizabeth McGovern.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing Elena Gilbert on the CW hit series, but the singer-actress was the network’s first choice. It wasn’t until the producers took a second look at Nina Dobrev‘s audition tape that they decided to go with the Bulgarian beauty.

The renowned vocalist had a chance to star in a TV series led by Bill Cosby, yet she declined to focus on her musical career instead.

To Sex and the City fans, Sarah Jessica Parker is Carrie Bradshaw, but once upon a time, Dana Delany was offered the role of the New York columnist. The Emmy-winner passed because she had already done multiple projects involving x-rated material (Nude Girls, Exit to Eden) and didn’t want to be involved with a project that had “sex” in the title.

David Letterman‘s bandleader was offered the role by Jerry Seinfeld without an audition, but Shaffer never called him back.

AMC considered casting Jane as Don Draper, but Jon Hamm explained during a podcast that the role was not taken by Jane because Hamm himself didn’t want to appear on a television series. Later, he would star in HBO’s “Hung.

2010’s Sexiest Man Alive could have been part of the Joss Whedon crew, but he passed on the role of Xander. “I love that show and I loved Joss Whedon,” he told The Toronto Star in 2008. “But my biggest concern was that I didn’t want to play a guy in high school.”

2025-03-17 21:34

Lucy Hale’s Shocking Audition for Hannah Montana

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