Chris O’Dowd has revealed the unusual audition technique he used as a young actor to try to make himself memorable.
The Bridesmaids star said he used to say he had just been bitten by a dog when he arrived at meetings, but eventually the trick backfired.
Appearing on the BBC’s Grounded With Louis Theroux, he said: “What happens essentially in London particularly, and in New York I’m sure, is at the same time of the year when the colleges finish, the city is swamped with these hundreds of wannabe actors, thousands probably.
Monday's episode of #Grounded is the last in the current series and features a conversation with @BigBoyler. Louis and Chris discuss THAT Imagine video, growing up in Boyle and pretending to be bitten by a dog. Listen on @BBCSounds #louistheroux pic.twitter.com/4zHIudks6b
— Mindhouse Productions (@MindhouseTV) June 26, 2020
“And so it’s hard to make a name for yourself or to even make an impression, and so for around two months I pretended that I had just been bitten by a dog.
“As I walked in and I would go in and say ‘Did anybody see that cocker spaniel on the road? Ah god’ and I would be clutching my ankle and I’d pull down my sock, ‘it didn’t tear the skin, it’s fine, it’s fine, we’re good, we’re good’.
“I don’t know what I was hoping, other than like somebody would go, ‘Hey, do you know who would be good for that? The guy who was bitten by a dog.’
“But it all came crashing down when I took another one of these general meetings, I went into this meeting and they were like ‘Hey how are you?’ and I was like ‘Good good, I just, oh my god, just at the bottom of your stairs there was this, I don’t know, he was like a terrier mix, he wouldn’t have done any damage but he went right for my ankle out of nowhere’ and then they were like ‘Oh my god, that’s so weird…because the last time you were here, you were bitten by a dog.’
“I’d forgotten that I had been there, so I had to try and style it out. And I was like ‘Yeah I’ve been having a lot of trouble with them lately’ and tried to change the subject.”
Grounded With Louis Theroux is available to listen to on BBC Sounds on Monday and BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday at 8pm.