Leonardo DiCaprio posse member Jay R. Ferguson recalls ‘wildly uncomfortable’ Great Gatsby audition

Having an A-lister like Leonardo DiCaprio as your friend doesn’t hurt if you’re an actor. But it also doesn’t guarantee success at an audition.

Actor Jay R. Ferguson, who’s known for his work on shows such as The Conners and Mad Men, revealed on a recent edition of the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast that his good friend got him an audition for Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 take on The Great Gatsby.

The conversation shifted to the topic when Ferguson explained that he wouldn’t be comfortable with the idea of DiCaprio simply handing him a role.

“I will tell you, though, I was, for a very small moment — I wouldn’t even say I was in the running,” Ferguson admitted. “I think they probably just did it as a favor to Leo — but when they were doing The Great Gatsby, I had just come off of The Lucky One, which is also a Warner Brothers movie. I did reach out and ask if he could help by getting the director to at least look at my audition tape. And he did.”

The Lucky One, a 2012 Nicholas Sparks drama, starred Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling.

Ferguson’s The Great Gatsby audition also involved another mutual friend and co-star from the movie, Toby Maguire — plus a bit of luck.

“At the time, there was another actor in the running for it, but then he fell out,” Ferguson explained. “And the director evidently liked my audition, so they decided to set up a test.”

While that sounded promising, the two-hour session turned out to be “wildly uncomfortable.”

“They’ve been my best friends for years and years,” Ferguson recalled. “So it was me, Leo, Toby, and Baz Luhrmann in a hotel room at the Chateau [Marmont], doing all these scenes and take after take.”

The session stretched even longer as DiCaprio and Maguire helped Ferguson prepare, something he described as “just another testament to how awesome those guys are.” He appreciated their support, knowing he wanted to truly earn the role.

When Ferguson didn’t land the part, he admitted he felt “a little sad.”

Now 50, he shared that his friendship with DiCaprio is still strong, though they don’t see each other as often these days.