Fri 25 April 2025 11:15, UK
Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon has opened up about his failed audition for the Coen brothers’ 2013 movie, Inside Llewyn Davis.
The Academy Award-nominated movie tracks a week in the life of the fictional Llewyn Davis, an aspiring folk singer in New York City’s famous Greenwich Village scene during the early 1960s whose life is falling apart while he dreams of superstardom.
Oscar Isaac took the lead role, transforming the actor’s career and catapulting him into the mainstream. However, Vernon has now revealed he was under consideration for the role despite his lack of acting skills.
During a recent episode of the Handsome podcast, Vernon explained how representatives of the Coen brothers got in touch with him while Bon Iver were on the road in 2012, much to his surprise, noting, “I’m the biggest fan of their movies. And to put it into perspective, before I tell you this story, I made movies growing up with my friends, my sports friends and I made movies. I was never allowed to be on camera because I was so bad at acting. I was always the director. “
Vernon was unaware of what the project entailed, and was initially hesitant, recalling, “I immediately was like, there’s no way in high hell that I can do this. I definitely am not built for this. I don’t wanna be any more famous than I just got.”
After reading the script, he changed his tune and fell in love with the movie. However, the singer-songwriter thought the role was his when he was merely under consideration.
The Bon Iver musician remembered a meeting at Joel Coen’s apartment when he got himself “into such a tizzy” that he proposed moving his Australian tour for the movie, adding, “In that moment, it was the most dun dun dun moment in my life. In that moment, I realised that I was in an audition and I didn’t know that. And I was completely paralysed.”
He continued: “The movie ended up being acted by Oscar Isaac, it’s a movie called Inside Llewyn Davis. So I’m sitting there, I’m a terrible actor, I’ve read this thing exactly once… It was OK that they were laughing at me, because I was so bad.”
While it was a missed opportunity to become a Hollywood star, Vernon is grateful he didn’t get the role, concluding, “It was one of those learning experiences where if something doesn’t feel right to you, and you’re not meant to do it, maybe just let it pass.”
Bon Iver recently released their new album, Sable, Fable, which Far Out described as a “conduit for reflections on everything that pushes us between light and dark, finding that sweet spot where despair transforms into liberation.”
