Gabrielle Union has been cast in several notable projects like Bring It On and Being Mary Jane. Despite her accomplishments in the film industry, there are plenty of other roles she wasn’t able to score. Although used to rejection, there was one movie she was turned down for that took some time to get over.
Gabrielle Union spent half a year auditioning for a film role she didn’t get
Union has been as open about the film roles she’s won as much as she’s been for the ones she lost. But the failed audition that might’ve bothered Union the most at one point was for the 2001 feature Josie and the Pussycats. The comedy was based on the 1970s cartoon of the same name that followed the rise of a fictional girl band. Union tried out for the character Valerie Brown, a role that was also pursued by real singers like Beyoncé and Aaliyah. In the end, Rosario Dawson ended up with the part.
At the time, however, the rejection might’ve been a blessing in disguise for Union. Despite its cult following, the movie didn’t perform well at the box-office and received mixed reviews upon its release. Union was well-aware of Josie and the Pussycats’ lackluster results, but that provided the actor little comfort. If only because of how exhausting auditioning for the feature was.
“I’m still a little bitter about Josie And The Pussycats. It was such a long process of auditioning. Every one keeps pointing at how it turned out, but that is irrelevant for me because I spend 6 months auditioning for the film. But, it’s like a rite of passage for me now,” Union once said according to Black Film.
Gabrielle Union sabotaged her own audition for ‘The Matrix’
Josie and the Pussycats wasn’t the only huge movie that Union auditioned for. She was also briefly considered for the blockbuster feature The Matrix. Although she didn’t spend six months rehearsing for the project, she did put in quite a bit of effort trying to land the coveted project. She took inspiration from singer Janet Jackson to try and win the part.
“I went to audition. To me, I needed to feel like the most powerful, beautiful, and amazing woman in the world, so of course, I wanted to channel Janet Jackson,” Union said in a 2021 interview on The Late Late Show with James Corden. “I go to Extensions Plus, the Mecca of weaves. I wanted to get the good hair, the Janet hair. So, I get the Janet hair from the weave emporium. I literally [found] the exact outfit from her album cover. I draw in the damn mole. I’m fully committed.”
But what Union didn’t expect was for the real Janet Jackson to audition for the same part. Afterwards, neither Jackson nor Union ended up with roles in The Matrix.
“I think we canceled each other out,” she joked.
What Gabrielle Union has learned about rejection throughout her career
Union’s response to constant rejection has changed dramatically throughout her career. Before, the Bad Boys II star was sometimes personally hurt when she didn’t receive a film role she wanted.
“In the beginning of my career, I did not deal with it well,” Union said in an interview with The View. “It just felt like your mother turning away from you when you’re crying out for help.”
But in her more mature years, the Being Mary Jane star realized that her past rejections might’ve actually done her a favor.
“Overtime, you realize that a lot of those rejections are actually just protection. They’re situations that, whether it’s just happenstance, wasn’t meant to be, but I was protected from things that were happening on those sets,” Union said. “But also it’s the power of no. Some of those rejections, that’s you needing to be like, ‘I don’t want to be a part of that. You don’t see my value, you don’t see my full self. You want slivers of me to show up.’ And I’m showing up fully me and fully free and you don’t see the value and I don’t want to be here.”
