Charlize Theron Recalls Her 'Horrible' Audition with 'Idol' Tom Hanks for 'That Thing You Do'

Charlize Theron keeps it cool while making her way out of Good Morning America‘s Times Square studio after promoting her film Tully on Friday morning (May 4) in New York City.

The evening before, the 42-year-old actress hit Stephen Colbert‘s couch on The Late Show and recalled her “horrible” audition for her second project ever, the 1996 film That Thing You Do, co-starring her idol Tom Hanks.

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“It was not good!,” Charlize admitted to Stephen. “I don’t know why he gave me the role, I mean, honestly. I was so nervous. Imagine you’re 19 and you meet this idol. I idolized him! I watched Turner and Hooch like 500 times. So to audition for somebody like that, it’s frightening.”

“The character who plays my boyfriend in the movie, his character name was Guy,” Charlize added of the role played by Tom Everett Scott. “I had to do this scene, and Tom [Hanks] read with me. It’s so mortifying. I got so nervous that I couldn’t say Guy and I kept saying ‘gay’ and the more I tried to correct myself, the more I just said ‘gay.’ It was just so horrible. He literally said at one point, ‘You know, let’s just take a break. We’ll come back.’ And I was like, ‘Ugh, I am sucking right now!’”