‘House of the Dragon’ Star Olivia Cooke Recalls “Terrible” Star Wars Audition for Main Character Role That Left Her Doubting Herself

Before becoming known around the world as Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon, Olivia Cooke had a chance to join one of the biggest movie franchises ever. However, the actress now admits that her Star Wars audition did not go the way she hoped.

During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Cooke revealed that she auditioned for the role of Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the character that eventually went to Daisy Ridley. The actress also cleared up previous rumors that she was being considered for Rose Tico, played by Kelly Marie Tran in The Last Jedi.

Cooke explained that she was one of many actors who tried out for the lead role in the 2015 Star Wars film. According to her, the competition was huge because so many performers wanted the chance to become part of the galaxy far, far away.

“I did audition a few times for the other one, where Daisy Ridley got [the role of Rey]… The first one,” Cooke said during the podcast. “But, like, everyone and their dog auditioned for that.”

The actress said she auditioned in Los Angeles before also reading for director J.J. Abrams, who was behind The Force Awakens and later directed The Rise of Skywalker. Looking back at the experience, Cooke admitted that she did not feel confident about her performance.

“And I was s—. I was really bad,” she said.

When podcast host Josh Horowitz asked her about the audition, Cooke explained that she simply felt like she did not give her best performance.

“I was just bad. You know when you go into an audition, and you’re just not bringing it, and you’ve let yourself down, you’ve let everyone down in the room?” she said.

In the end, the role of Rey went to Daisy Ridley, who became one of the main faces of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Cooke has no hard feelings about missing out on the part and believes Ridley was the right choice for the character.

“Daisy did such an amazing job,” Cooke said. “I just wasn’t that kind of actor at that time. It wasn’t a fit.”

The Star Wars audition was not the only major role that Cooke once thought she had lost. She also remembered missing out on the 2014 romantic drama Endless Love. The actress explained that she wanted the role badly because it was her first major screen test, but the part eventually went to Gabriella Wilde.

Cooke recalled how emotional the rejection was at the time, especially because she was still very young and unsure about her future in acting.

“My agent rung me up like in the middle of the night in the U.K. ‘cause they were in America and I wept into my childhood pillow in my childhood home,” she said. “I was like my career is not gonna amount to anything because I didn’t get Endless Love.”

Despite those early disappointments, Cooke’s career continued to grow. She later appeared in movies including Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Ready Player One, and Sound of Metal. She eventually became widely recognized for playing Queen Alicent Hightower in HBO’s House of the Dragon.

While she never became part of the Star Wars universe, Cooke’s career shows that missing out on one major opportunity does not define an actor’s future.

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