Hollywood is full of stories of sleazy agents and casting couches. So this story of Jerry Bruckheimer making January Jones dance on top of a table during her audition for Coyote Ugly seems pretty tame. This happened during a THR roundtable with Claire Danes, Mireille Enos, January Jones, Julianna Margulies, Emmy Rossum and Kyra Sedgwick.
January Jones: That just reminded me of one of the worst moments in my entire life. It was an audition for Coyote Ugly, my second audition ever. I’d done the reading for the acting part and then Jerry Bruckheimer wanted me to come in and dance … on top of the table.
Margulies: You mean just regular dance?
Jones: Yes. They said, “You’re going to dance to Prince’s ‘Kiss.’ You’re going to pole dance, but there is no pole.” (Laughter.) And I just turned beet red. It was awful, and he said something like, “Honey, you did a great reading, but you’ve got no rhythm.” (Laughter.) I called my agent and said, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Jones: Oh, he has no recollection of it.
Sedgwick: Of course not. He’s said that to so many girls.
To be fair, the entire premise of Coyote Ugly was hot chicks dancing on top of a bar. This isn’t like Megan Fox’s Transformers audition where Michael Bay made her wash his Ferrari while he filmed. I’m sure they both jerked off to the footage afterward but at least Bruckheimer was dignified about it.