American Horror Story casting director looks back on Margot Robbie’s season 2 audition

Produced by and starring Margot Robbie, Barbie (read our review HERE) isn’t only the biggest movie to come out in 2023, having earned having earned more than $1.3 billion at the box office, but it also happens to be Warner Bros’ all time highest-grossing global release. While that Robbie project rakes in the dough, American Horror Story casting director Eric Dawson, who casts the long-running FX anthology series with his partners Robert J. Ulrich and Carol Kritzer at Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting, has revealed that Robbie audition for the second season of the series more than a decade ago.

Running for thirteen episodes from October 2012 to January 2013, the second season of American Horror Story was called Asylum. Starring Zachary Quinto, Joseph Fiennes, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Lizzie Brocheré, James Cromwell, and Jessica Lange, it took place in 1964 and followed the stories of the staff and inmates who occupy the fictional mental institution Briarcliff Manor, intercutting with events in the past and present.

Chloë Sevigny, Ian McShane, Naomi Grossman, Fredric Lehne, Britne Oldford, Frances Conroy, Jenna Dewan, Clea DuVall, Mark Engelhardt, Dylan McDermott, Barbara Tarbuck, Mark Consuelos, Matthew John Armstrong, Adam Levine, Mark Margolis, Joel McKinnon Miller, Joe Egender, Vanessa Mizzone, and Franka Potente were also in the cast.

While Dawson was speaking with Backstage for In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, it came up that Robbie had auditioned for American Horror Story: Asylum. Here’s what he had to say about it: “Margot has a lot of ‘it’ factors. That’s the tough thing for casting directors who aren’t in the room [anymore] with actors. Margot is probably one of my favorite auditions of all time, and it was right before she broke out. She was such a star. It was crazy, her star appeal when she walked in the room. Even though she didn’t get that role, that was one of those things as a casting director where you go: This is a star, what do we do with her? Immediately, though, she was out of our realm of possibility of hiring. But that’s really the fun part of casting, is seeing the people whose careers are just rising.“

Dawson didn’t specify why Robbie didn’t end up being cast, but judging by the production dates on The Wolf of Wall Street, which was released in 2013, it looks like Martin Scorsese might have gotten to her before American Horror Story could sign her. A Best Picture nominee, The Wolf of Wall Street ended up being a major breakthrough for her.

What do you think of Margot Robbie having a near-miss with American Horror Story: Asylum? Let us know by leaving a comment below.