Harry Hamlin says he never worked with Steven Spielberg because he talked behind his back at his Indiana Jones audition
Actor also claimed he was asked to bake a cake to test his chemistry with Stephanie Zimbalist
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Your support makes all the difference.Harry Hamlin has said he believes he never worked with Steven Spielberg because he was recorded talking behind the director’s back at his audition for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
In 1978, Hamlin was asked to audition for the role of Indiana Jones for Spielberg and George Lucas.
He and Stephanie Zimbalist, who was auditioning for the part of Marion, came in together for the audition.
“When I got there, Steven came down,” Hamlin told Page Six. “He said, ‘Harry, Stephanie, I’m so sorry, but George’s plane is going to be late. He’s flying down from San Francisco and it’s going to be at least 45 minutes until he gets here.’”
Hamlin said Spielberg then asked the actors to bake a chocolate cake for Lucas in the production studio’s kitchen while they waited for him to arrive.
“He closed the door and left and we were standing alone in this kitchen,” Hamlin said, explaining that they then spent 40 minutes talking as they attempted to make a cake without instructions.
“During that time,” said Hamlin, “because Amy Irving [who was later Spielberg’s wife] had been a good friend of mine, 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 added: “It never occurred to me that we were actually in the audition while we were making the cake.”
Hamlin claimed the kitchen was wired with cameras and microphones while Spielberg and Lucas were upstairs watching the actors to see whether they had chemistry.
“I’d been riffing on how annoying Steven Spielberg was to my friend Amy,” said Hamlin, “So hey, guess what? I didn’t get the part 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.”
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The role of Indiana Jones eventually went to Harrison Ford, while Karen Allen played Marion. It is not known whether the pair were asked to bake a cake, chocolate or otherwise.
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