--- title: Matthew McConaughey, Aaron Paul: Audition Tapes That Made Actors description: From Matthew McConaughey to Seth Rogen and Rachel McAdams canonical: https://time.com/3835151/audition-tapes-famous-actors-careers/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-24T20:43:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:40:14.025Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: See Movie Stars Audition for the Roles That Made Them Famous og:description: Watch Matthew McConaughey, Seth Rogen and Rachel McAdams in action og:url: https://time.com/3835151/audition-tapes-famous-actors-careers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See Movie Stars Audition for the Roles That Made Them Famous twitter:description: Watch Matthew McConaughey, Seth Rogen and Rachel McAdams in action twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 11 Audition Tapes That Made Now-Famous Actors' Careers  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Apr 24, 2015 8:43 PM CUT  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Apr 24, 2015 8:43 PM CUT Before they were famous, Hollywood’s A-list stars had to audition for their breakout roles. From Rachel McAdam’s infamous _Notebook_ audition to the screen test for the role that made Matthew McConaughey a star, here are 10 famous audition tapes. Warning: These videos may contain graphic language. ### Miley Cyrus’ audition for _Hannah Montana_ ### Rachel McAdams’ audition for _The Notebook_ ### Aaron Paul’s audition for _Breaking Bad_ ### Matthew McConaughey’s audition for _Dazed and Confused_ ### Hugh Jackman’s audition for _X-Men_ ### Emma Stone’s audition for _Easy A_ ### Russell Brand’s (improvised!) audition for _Forgetting Sarah Marshall_ ### Rose Byrne’s audition for _Get Him to the Greek_ ### Steve Carell’s audition for _Anchorman_ ### Seth Rogen’s audition for _Freaks & Geeks_ ### Ellen Page’s audition for _Juno_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3835151/audition-tapes-famous-actors-careers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3835151/audition-tapes-famous-actors-careers/"},"headline":"11 Audition Tapes That Made Now-Famous Actors' Careers","datePublished":"2015-04-24T20:43:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:40:14.025Z","description":"See Matthew McConaughey, Seth Rogen and Rachel McAdams in action","url":"https://time.com/3835151/audition-tapes-famous-actors-careers/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3835151/audition-tapes-famous-actors-careers/","name":"11 Audition Tapes That Made Now-Famous Actors' Careers"}}]}] ```