Early in her career, Reese Witherspoon confessed she had no idea who Robert De Niro was when she walked into an audition.
Thursday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the actress recalled entering a room to read her lines in front of the “Goodfellas” actor when she was only 14 years old.
“Because I did not know who Robert De Niro was, I was outside speaking with the receptionist. She said, “You do realize that he is the most important actor of our time, right?” Witherspoon told Jimmy Kimmel, the host.
The Oscar-winning actress says she “brick[ed]” her audition for De Niro’s 1991 picture “Cape Fear” since she had no idea who he was.
“I was 14. I’d never seen ‘Goodfellas.’ I had never watched “The Godfather.” So it completely irritated me,” she continued.
Witherspoon met the actor a decade later at another audition, when she erroneously believed he would “never remember that I bombed that audition.”
She remembered, “And he was like, ‘I remember you’” “I was like, ‘Me?’ He responds, “Oh yeah.” You are the one who was unable to utter the word.’”
De Niro will attend the New York premiere of Savage Salvation on November 27, 2022.
Witherspoon described yet another embarrassing experience she had with a Hollywood celebrity.
During her internship for Denzel Washington’s 1995 film “Devil in a Blue Dress,” Reese Witherspoon was responsible for parking Washington’s Porsche when he arrived on location.
She joked, “Not a good idea for a 17-year-old with a brand-new driver’s license.”
“Oh, my God! “I stripped every gear; it was awful,” she laughed.
“The humorous part is that I ran into him at a wedding a few years ago, and he said, ‘I’ve heard you tell this tale about how you used to park my Porsche.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I did.’”
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