--- title: Mahershala Ali Had A Terrible Game of Thrones Audition description: Mahershala Ali, the Moonlight star, claims a chair ruined his chance to go to Westeros canonical: https://time.com/4632958/mahershala-ali-on-game-of-thrones-audition/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-12T19:23:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:08.322Z og:title: Mahershala Ali Had a Terrible Game of Thrones Audition og:description: The Moonlight star claims a chair ruined his chance to go to Westeros og:url: https://time.com/4632958/mahershala-ali-on-game-of-thrones-audition/ 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: Mahershala Ali Had a Terrible Game of Thrones Audition twitter:description: The Moonlight star claims a chair ruined his chance to go to Westeros twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # There's a Hilarious Reason Mahershala Ali Flunked His _Game of Thrones_ Audition by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jan 12, 2017 7:23 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jan 12, 2017 7:23 PM UTC Mahershala Ali is making waves for [his performance](http://time.com/4540116/barry-jenkins-moonlight-enchants/?iid=sr-link3) in the Golden Globe-winning film, [_Moonlight_](http://time.com/4626237/golden-globes-2017-moonlight-best-picture-drama/?iid=sr-link1), as well as his memorable role in [_Luke Cage_.](http://time.com/luke-cage-team/?iid=sr-link1) Casting directors across the land may be kicking themselves for not hiring him, but there’s one show that Ali knows doesn’t want him—_Game of Thrones._ Ali claims that he had a “terrible” audition for [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/4429346/game-of-thrones-season-7-cast-news/?iid=sr-link2)_._ “That was one of the worst auditions of my life,” said Ali, recounting the tale of his humiliating try-out on Wednesday’s _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_ . Turns out that the botched audition wasn’t entirely his fault, though. Ali told Jimmy Kimmel that he was very prepared to audition for the role of a merchant. He had memorized all his lines and practiced what he dubbed “power moves” that would land him a job in [Westeros](http://time.com/3924852/every-game-of-thrones-death/?iid=sr-link6). All he needed to succeed was a chair. Unfortunately HBO didn’t have any chairs in the audition room and it all went downhill from there. Luckily, Kimmel had some advice for the actor: “Bring a chair with you next time.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4632958/mahershala-ali-on-game-of-thrones-audition/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4632958/mahershala-ali-on-game-of-thrones-audition/"},"headline":"There's a Hilarious Reason Mahershala Ali Flunked His Game of Thrones Audition","datePublished":"2017-01-12T19:23:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:08.322Z","description":"The Moonlight star claims a chair ruined his chance to go to Westeros","url":"https://time.com/4632958/mahershala-ali-on-game-of-thrones-audition/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","game of thrones","jimmy kimmel live","moonlight"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4632958/mahershala-ali-on-game-of-thrones-audition/","name":"There's a Hilarious Reason Mahershala Ali Flunked His Game of Thrones Audition"}}]}] ```