Some of you may know Kiersey Clemons from movies like Dope, Flatliners (the 2017 version) and Disney’s live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp, while others may have seen her on TV shows like Transparent, New Girl and the currently-running Fairfax, which can be streamed with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. It’s safe to say, though, that a lot of people will be introduced to her later this year in The Flash, one of four upcoming DC movies slated for this year. As it turns out, Clemons also had the opportunity to join the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but contrary to her initial belief, her audition did not go well… at all.
Ahead of The Flash’s release, and while plugging her latest movie, Amazon’s Somebody I Used To Know, on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Kiersey Clemons recalled how her attempt to score a role in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies failed miserably. She started off by explaining how sure she was at the time that she’d nailed her audition, saying:
Basically, I went in, and I was so confident. I don’t know if you’ve ever had an audition where you’re like, ‘Oh my God… I got this in the bag. This is it!’ And it didn’t go that way.
While Kiersey Clemons specify which Pirates of the Caribbean movie she auditioned for, it’s likely she was referring to 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales, which saw Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow going up against Javier Bardem’s Armando Salazar. In another universe, Clemons might have scored that role, and that would have taken her acting career down a different path. But that’s not what happened in our reality. So what went wrong? Apparently Clemons misjudged how the character she was auditioning for was supposed to behave. As she put it:
I went in, I thought the character was supposed to kind of be a little crazy and you didn’t know what she was going to do or say next, so I went in with that energy, and then I don’t hear back from my agent. So I’m like, ‘What happened? Where’s my offer at?’ And she was like, ‘It’s not going forward, the casting director asked, actually, if you were ok.’ [laughs] Like if I was well… And I was like, ‘No, the character is unwell. I just did a really good job.’
Director: Andy Muschietti
Writer: Christina Hodson
Cast: Ezra Miller, Kiersey Clemons, Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Antje Traue, Ron Livingston and Maribel Verdú
Kiersey Clemons finished her story by sharing the most embarrassing part of it all: she wanted a chance to redo her audition. She got that chance, but when she entered the room, the first thing she exclaimed was, “You can’t get rid of me!” That must have been the final straw since Clemons was nowhere to be seen in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Perhaps that’s for the best though given how the franchise has been at a standstill since Dead Men Tell No Tales critically and commercially underwhelmed. Efforts are underway to get Pirates of the Caribbean 6 off the ground, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer has said he hopes the Margot Robbie-led spinoff can move forward too.
Fortunately for Kiersey Clemons, she was recruited to a different blockbuster franchise, and while her first outing as Iris West was cut from Justice League’s theatrical release, it was added back in for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The four-hour cut showed Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen using his super speed to rescue Iris from a traffic accident. While Clemons will be back as Iris for The Flash, specific details on how she fits into the story haven’t been revealed yet.
The Flash races into theaters on June 16, and Kiersey Clemons was pleased to hear about the praise that DC Studios co-head James Gunn gave it. If you now find yourself in the mood to rewatch the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Disney+ subscribers can easily stream those.
