“They had narrowed it down to five or six guys and we all went in to read with Sarah. The night before, I was playing basketball and I got undercut. I landed on my back, so I got hurt. That had never happened before. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t put on my socks and shoes. I was really messed up. And I went in to read with Sarah in a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops. The whole scene I did leaning up against a bookcase. I just couldn’t physically move. And at that point, I had already read for Joss and the other producers, and it was my first time reading with Sarah. It was a very intimate scene. They wanted to see the guy who wasn’t intimidated by her.
They wanted to obviously try to see some chemistry between the actors, but someone that could go up and physically approach her and hold their own against Sarah as a presence, as an entity. You know, she holds the screen. She’s a star. And I didn’t have an opportunity to do that.
I walked out saying, “Sorry for wasting your time, thanks for having me. Good luck.” Because I was horrible. The acting was bad, everything that the scene was intended to do, I couldn’t do.
And so the next day, Joss called me at home. He said, “I’ve seen you do this. I know you’re my guy. When are you going to be ready.” And I said, “Joss, this has never happened to me before. I don’t know. I might need two weeks. I can’t put on my socks right now.” And he said, “All right, well, I think Sarah’s going out of town for about two weeks, and so when she comes back…” he more or less bought me time. And I went in two weeks later when I was fine and read with her and he said, “That’s it.” Then I got the job that way. Second chances don’t come a lot in this town because there’s just too much money at stake. They usually just don’t happen. So I will be forever grateful to Joss Whedon for giving me the second chance.”