Harry Hamlin claims that he was close to playing Indiana Jones, but lost the role to Harrison Ford because of an audition with Steven Spielberg that did not go as he expected.
In an interview with Page Six, Hamlin says that he met with Spielberg in 1978 alongside Stephanie Zimbalist, who was auditioning to play Indy’s companion, Marion Ravenwood. Spielberg told the two actors that George Lucas, executive producer on “Raiders,” was going to be late for the meeting and, strangely, asked them to make a chocolate cake while they waited for Lucas to arrive.
“He closed the door and left and we were standing alone in this kitchen,” Hamlin said. “I said, ‘Stephanie, have you ever made a chocolate cake?’ And she said, ‘No…’”
Hamlin claims that the cooking request was actually a hidden camera audition set up by Spielberg and Lucas to see if he and Zimbalist had chemistry. While they were trying to make a cake in the production studio’s kitchen, Hamlin told Zimbalist about stories he had heard about Spielberg from his friend, Amy Irving, who went on to marry Spielberg in 1985.
“I was talking about how Amy was calling her friend group in LA and saying that this guy, this director guy was stalking her in New York and how she was kind of getting annoyed because this guy, Steven Spielberg, was showing up at the stage door every night with flowers,” he said.
“It never occurred to me … that we were actually in the audition while we were making the cake.”
Ultimately, it was Harrison Ford who got the job as Indiana Jones, while Marion Ravenwood would be played by Karen Allen. Hamlin, meanwhile, went on to star in “Clash of the Titans” and the hit ’80s TV series “L.A. Law,” but has never done a film with Spielberg to this day.
“I didn’t get the part, OK, and I’ve never worked with Steven Spielberg, and I grant you that I never will work with Steven Spielberg and I never learned how to make a cake.”
Representatives for Spielberg did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. Spielberg is currently working on his adaptation of the hit musical “West Side Story,” set for release in December.