Whitney Cummings Details “Horror Audition” for Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’: “It Was Just So Humiliating”

Francis Ford Coppola‘s Megalopolis may have come and gone at the box office, but the big-budget epic is still a fresh topic of conversation.

During an episode of her Good For You podcast, a clip of which was shared on TikTok, the veteran stand-up comedian claimed she had a “horror audition” for Coppola’s latest film.

“This was such a core trauma for me,” explained the multi-hyphenate who has long worked as an actress, writer, director and producer. She went on to say that she got a call that Coppola wanted her to audition for the film — which she actually doesn’t name in the clip, though it’s clear she’s talking about his long-gestating epic that grossed $13 million at the global box office on a budget estimated to be roughly $120 million. Cummings says she threw herself into the audition, preparing “for days” and spending north of three hours in hair and makeup.

But when she got to the set with Coppola, she was surprised to learn it was far from a typical audition experience. “Everyone is so quiet. There’s no vibe of, ‘We’re at an audition. Hey, what’s up? Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you.’ It’s just so awkward,” Cummings continued. “I go in, I’m like, ‘So, where do you want to start first?’ And he’s, like, ‘Oh no, no, we’re not going to do the scene.’ I was like, ‘OK, OK. It’s three days of my life.’”

What came next is something that the actors who did star in Megalopolis have talked about since the film’s Cannes Film Festival premiere earlier this year: Coppola engaged in an experimental audition process by asking them to improvise scenes on the fly based on prompts he would deliver.

“He would just throw things at me,” Cummings said, adding that he first told her to say goodbye to her son who was going to war by using an English accent, and then use an Australian accent to respond to her husband leaving for her sister. “Because I did the show Punk’d, I was like, if I’m being Punk’d, this is actually genius.”

The audition was so, ahem, unique and unexpected that Cummings said she “disassociated the entire thing. I started glazing over, and then he was, like, ‘That was great.’ I don’t know where I went. I just completely disassociated.”

Cummings suggests she’s used to improvising with a scene partner, and she felt lost next to the iconic auteur. “I am improvising my head off to just nothing,” she said. “Why am I acting with him? He’s, like, ‘It’s going to be me and we’re going to improvise the scene.’ I’m, like, ‘But you don’t [improvise].’ Has anyone ever told you the truth since Apocalypse Now? Right? Has anyone told you the truth? No.”

When it was all said and done, Cummings claimed she was on the verge of tears and “so embarrassed” by the process. But she did get a parting gift. “He gives me a signed copy of his new book. He signed it in front of me as if I had shown up to an autograph signing as if I wanted [it]. Like, thank you. And then gave me a bottle of Francis Ford Coppola wine. It was just so humiliating — that’s the only [word] — and so confounding in that moment.”

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to a rep for Coppola for response. It’s unclear which part Cummings auditioned for in Megalopolis, which featured a cast including Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Chloe Fineman and Jason Schwartzman, among others.

See the clip below. At the end of it, Cummings asks if the movie came out, to which he co-host replies that it did and it “did not go well.” “I guess I won that round,” Cummings quips. Aside from the critical and commercial drubbing, Megalopolis has also been at the center of several lawsuits.