David Letterman’s ‘Airplane!’ Audition Was So Terrible the Crew Went Up to Him and Said, ‘You Can’t Act!’: ‘I Laughed My Way Back to the Car’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director David Letterman relives his horrible “Airplane!” audition in the new oral history book, “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True History of Airplane!,” an excerpt from which was published on Entertainment Weekly.
Letterman was brought in to screen test for the lead role of Ted Striker, ultimately played by Robert Hays. “He wasn’t an actor, but he was funny.
And he looked great onscreen—like, leading-man good looks,” co-director Jeff Zucker says in the book. “But the thing about David is, he’s just really uncomfortable with the whole idea of acting.
I think it all seems too phony to him, like he’s bullshitting. It just wasn’t him.” Letterman adds that the “Airplane!” team was “really nice to consider me for a film,” but he tried to warn them that he was in no way shape or form an actor. “I liked those guys, and when I saw the movie, it was just delightful, and I was delighted to see it knowing that I didn’t have to look at myself,” Letterman says. “Because that would’ve ruined it.
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