Casting director shares story of Margot Robbie’s ‘crazy’ audition for American Horror Story

‘Barbie’ star auditioned for Ryan Murphy show in 2011

Margot Robbie once failed to land a role in American Horror Story, despite being one of the casting director’s “favourite auditions of all time”.

The Australian actor is one of Hollywood’s bankable stars, having recently gained critical acclaim for her performance in box office smash Barbie.

However, before she was cast in her breakout role in The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013, Robbie failed to land a role in the second season of Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology series American Horror Story.

At the time, the Oscar-nominated actor – who began her on-screen career in 2008 on the soap Neighbours – had appeared in the US TV series Pan Am. However, she had otherwise worked only in Australia.

The revelation was made by casting director Eric Dawson, who recalled Robbie auditioning for American Horror Story: Asylum in 2011.

“Margot has a lot of ‘it’ factors,” he told Backstage. “That’s the tough thing for casting directors who aren’t in the room [anymore] with actors.

“Margot is probably one of my favourite auditions of all time, and it was right before she broke out. She was such a star. It was crazy, her star appeal when she walked in the room.”

Dawson continued: “Even though she didn’t get that role, that was one of those things as a casting director where you go: This is a star, what do we do with her? Immediately, though, she was out of our realm of possibility of hiring. But that’s really the fun part of casting, is seeing the people whose careers are just rising.”

Robbie had her breakout role in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (Wolf of Wall Street/Paramount screengrab)

In the years since, Robbie has been nominated for two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and five Baftas.

As the star of and a producer on Barbie, the 33-year-old is reportedly set to earn roughly $50m (£39.4m) in salary and box office bonuses for the film, which has made more than $1.2bn in the global box office.

Speaking ahead of Barbie’s release in July, Robbie revealed that she had paid off her mother’s mortgage after her breakout role in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 white-collar crime drama, The Wolf of Wall Street.

“She’d take money out of the house mortgage, lend me money, so I always knew I got to pay that back,” she said.

“And then one day, when I made enough money, I just paid that whole mortgage off completely. I was like, ‘Mum, don’t even worry about that mortgage anymore. It doesn’t even exist anymore.’”

She continued: “Everything I owed my mum, I had it written down. Honestly, anyone in my position... you’d do that for your mum.”