Russell Crowe Would Reportedly Not Look at Julia Roberts' During His 'My Best Friend's Wedding' Audition

Director Paul Hogan is opening up about the worst table read that happened for My Best Friend’s Wedding and it was between Julia Roberts, and Russell Crowe!

During a new interview, Paul said that the two big stars just didn’t connect.

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“I don’t know what went wrong,” he admitted in an excerpt of Scott Meslow’s book “From Hollywood With Love,” as reported by Vulture. “It was one of the worst table reads I’ve ever experienced.”

Paul had actually been in favor of Russell in the male lead role, however, Julia had casting approval.

“No one was getting in this movie if Julia didn’t approve,” he said. “[But] Russell was, I thought, probably the most amazing actor I had ever encountered. I kind of knew Russell was going to be a really big star.”

But, their table read didn’t quite go as planned: “Russell was seated opposite Julia. He gripped that script, and he stared at that script, and he didn’t look at her once. He read every line in a monotone. At one point, Julia was literally leaning over the table, staring, like, inches from Russell’s face, trying to make eye contact. And he wouldn’t look at her.”

He went on, “At the end of the reading, Russell came up to me and said, ‘I thought that went pretty well.’ And then I knew: Russell was not going to be in ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’”

Dermot Mulroney was ultimately cast in the role as lead Michael O’Neal.

Just a few years ago, the cast reunited for an Entertainment Weekly cover!