Actor Wesley Snipes has recalled his disastrous audition for the 1989 film, Major League. Snipes has maintained a healthy career for decades, starring in some of the biggest films and franchises of the past thirty years. Things haven’t always gone his way during this time, but there’s no shortage of fans who have remained loyal to him from the start.
With an extensive resume of films to his credit, it’s likely that Snipes first made an impact on the big screen when he starred as Willie Mays Hayes in Major League. The David S. Ward comedy focused on professional baseball team, the Cleveland Indians as they struggled against an owner who wanted to move the team. The film found considerable success with both audiences and at the box office, ultimately leading to two sequels, neither of which included Snipes. This being said, Snipes’ career had received such a boost from Major League, that by 1990, he was being considered for (and landing) some very high profile roles. His subsequent turn in 1991’s New Jack City assured fans that Snipes was here to stay.
This being said, for Snipes, it doesn’t sound like he initially thought he was even going to make the final cut for Major League. While speaking with Collider recently, the 58-year old star looked back on his early days as an actor, specifically his audition for Major League, which he describes as "ridiculous." Read Snipes' description of his memorable audition below:
I went, they'd flew me out for another audition. And what I thought was the final audition, like a screen test. When I landed, they literally brought me from the airport to the Studio. Dropped my bags there. The assistant said, 'Hey, hello, welcome. Hey, they want you over at the field.' I was dressed in a flight suit, in like a pilot's flight suit and boxing shoes. Had no little league experience. Had none of that. So then I said okay. And when I got out to the field, there in the bleachers, in the stands on the field are all the other actors that are auditioning, fully dressed in baseball gear. In their baseball uniforms, fully dressed.
And I'm like, 'Okay, well I guess I had a great trip to California, I eat well.' And yeah, 'I'm going back to New York.' They got me out there on the... Literally the guys started laughing at me when they saw me walk up, and they started to say, 'Hey man, what are you doing here?' I said, 'Hey man, I'm here for the audition.' They started falling out because I had no gear, no glove, no shoes, no cleats, nothing. And no experience. So when I finally ran around the bases and tried to turn from second to third and ended up way out in the outfield, because my feet, I had no traction. The cats are falling out in the stands. When I made it back to home plate, literally the producers, the other auditioners, the actors, everybody was laughing their ass off. I had to laugh too because I was like, 'Hey man, what else can I do? I got no traction. I got boxing shoes on.' Yeah. Then they took me back to the office and said, 'Okay, you're hired.' Go figure that.
Aside from the obvious question of why Snipes was wearing boxing shoes, it’s likely that the poorly chosen footwear helped him land the job. Unable to round the bases properly, Snipes got everyone laughing early on, something that also seemed to be the case in Major League. He fared better several years later while working on the basketball film, White Men Can’t Jump, however. According to the instructors that both he and co-star Woody Harrelson had while training for the film, the two actors reached a level where they could’ve started for an NCAA Division III team.
While his Major League days are well behind him, Snipes is still going strong in Hollywood. For fans, his performance in Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America is one of the film’s highlights and although Snipes won’t be returning for the upcoming Blade reboot, he’s consistently proven himself as the sort of star who can surprise audiences and casting agents alike.
Source: Collider
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