Kate Winslet remembers Robert Downey Jr.’s “dreadful” audition for ‘The Holiday’: “That’s not going to work”

Kate Winslet has shared her memories of Robert Downey Jr.’s audition for The Holiday, which she has described as “dreadful”.

The actress was appearing on The Tonight Show when host Jimmy Fallon brought up the audition, for which he was also present. “I remember it extremely well, I really do,” Winslet said. 

At the time, Winslet had already been cast in her role, but Fallon and Downey Jr. were competing for the role that eventually went to Jude Law.

“We were told it was just a reading,” Winslet continued. “I thought it was just a reading, like a fun reading of the script. I didn’t know it was an audition for the part. I am so sorry you didn’t get it.”

“Robert Downey Jr. then did an English accent but I thought it was an Australian accent,” she added. “I thought, ‘That’s bad. That’s not going to work. Who is going to tell him that sounds dreadful?’”

In the film, Winslet and Cameron Diaz play two lovelorn women from opposite sides of the Atlantic who arrange a home swap for the Christmas period. Diaz’s character Amanda falls for Law’s book editor Graham, while Winslet’s Iris sparks a relationship with Jack Black’s film composer Miles.

Downey himself disclosed last year that Winslet roasted him for having the “worst British accent” ever in the audition.

In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, the Iron Man star also recalled going to the audition with Fallon, saying that they both sensed that Law was already the frontrunner for the role.

“We both got called in just as seat fillers,” Downey said. “[Meyers] needed someone to read with the gals and we’re sitting there going, ‘It’s about to happen for us’. And I was like, ‘I’ve got to have a better English accent than Jude Law at this point.’”

“And Winslet said, ‘That is the worst British accent I’ve ever heard.’”

The film, which has become a Christmas tradition for many fans, made $205 million worldwide on its release, against a budget of $85 million.

Winslet is currently starring in The Regime, an HBO political satire in which she plays a dictator of a fictional Central European country.

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