--- description: From Vivien Leigh to Robert Downey Jr — we present a gallery of screen tests that led to some iconic performances title: Amazing Hollywood Screen Tests image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc09167688ea98820/698a8e8909208fdcbf422c8c/t100_movies_godfather.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- ![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc09167688ea98820/698a8e8909208fdcbf422c8c/t100_movies_godfather.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9) * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # 11 Amazing Hollywood Screen Tests by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Aug 21, 2013 9:45 AM CUT ![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc09167688ea98820/698a8e8909208fdcbf422c8c/t100_movies_godfather.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2) Everett by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Aug 21, 2013 9:45 AM CUT From Vivien Leigh to Robert Downey Jr — we present a gallery of screen tests that led to some iconic performances ## Before They Got the Part... ![Long before a big-name star steps onto a set for the first day of shooting a major Hollywood production, he or she must often submit to a screen test.  Most such "tests" these days are informal and rarely involve costumes or sets: the actor simply performs a selected scene in front of a camera—sometimes with another star, sometimes with an assistant casting director \(not known for their dramatic skills\). In the following gallery, we present screen tests for roles that have become familiar and much loved, from a young Audrey Hepburn reading for the part of Princess Ann in Roman Holiday to a supremely confident Robert Downey Jr. demonstrating how he was born to play supremely confident billionaire-industrialist Tony Stark in the Iron Man films. We start with a lovely British actress who got a chance to prove she belonged to join an all-star cast of a movie destined to become a Hollywood classic.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1d3b3764f14edc9/6998c0dca97fc09f93a73b43/week-ahead-titanic.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)
Long before a big-name star steps onto a set for the first day of shooting a major Hollywood production, he or she must often submit to a screen test. Most such "tests" these days are informal and rarely involve costumes or sets: the actor simply performs a selected scene in front of a camera—sometimes with another star, sometimes with an assistant casting director (not known for their dramatic skills).



In the following gallery, we present screen tests for roles that have become familiar and much loved, from a young Audrey Hepburn reading for the part of Princess Ann in Roman Holiday to a supremely confident Robert Downey Jr. demonstrating how he was born to play supremely confident billionaire-industrialist Tony Stark in the Iron Man films.



We start with a lovely British actress who got a chance to prove she belonged to join an all-star cast of a movie destined to become a Hollywood classic. timeadmin ## Vivien Leigh, 'Gone with the WInd' ## Audrey Hepburn, ‘Roman Holiday’ ## Al Pacino, ‘The Godfather’ ## Mark Hamill, ‘Star Wars’ ## Carrie Fisher, ‘Star Wars’ ## Henry Thomas, ‘E.T. the Extraterrestrial’ ## Johnny Depp, ‘Benny & Joon’ ## Kate Winslet, ‘Titanic’ ## Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ ## Steve Carell, ‘Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy’ ## Robert Downey Jr, 'Iron Man' Amazing Hollywood Screen Tests ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118010/11-amazing-hollywood-screen-tests/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118010/11-amazing-hollywood-screen-tests/"},"headline":"11 Amazing Hollywood Screen Tests","datePublished":"2013-08-21T09:45:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T05:05:05.562Z","description":"From Vivien Leigh to Robert Downey Jr — we present a gallery of screen tests that led to some iconic performances","url":"https://time.com/archive/7118010/11-amazing-hollywood-screen-tests/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc09167688ea98820/698a8e8909208fdcbf422c8c/t100_movies_godfather.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc09167688ea98820/698a8e8909208fdcbf422c8c/t100_movies_godfather.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"T100_movies_GODFATHER","caption":"","creditText":"Everett","representativeOfPage":true}],"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":"https://time.com/archive/7118010/11-amazing-hollywood-screen-tests/","name":"11 Amazing Hollywood Screen Tests"}}]}] ```