How Harry Hamlin Totally Blew His Indiana Jones Audition

While we can't imagine anyone but Harrison Ford playing the charismatic Indiana Jones, Harry Hamlin apparently auditioned for the role -- and screwed up his chance big time.

In a new interview, Hamlin revealed he was one of the many actors who screen tested for the part, which Tom Selleck, Peter Coyote and Tim Matheson were also considered for at the time. Though Karen Allen would eventually play Marion Ravenwood in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Hamlin read with actress Stephanie Zimbalist, who also auditioned to play the female lead.

"When I got there, [Director Steven Spielberg] came down," Hamlin told Page Six. "He said, 'Harry, Stephanie, I'm so sorry, but [creator George Lucas'] plane is going to be late. He's flying down from San Francisco and it's going to be at least 45 minutes until he gets here.'"

Spielberg then left the two alone in a kitchen and asked them to bake a cake for Lucas in the meantime. Neither of them knew what to do, as they tried whipping up a sweet treat without a recipe.

"During that time, because Amy Irving had been a good friend of mine, I was talking about how Amy was calling her friend group in LA and saying that this guy, this director guy was stalking her in New York and how she was kind of getting annoyed because this guy, Steven Spielberg, was showing up at the stage door every night with flowers," explained Harry.

That proved to be a disastrous comment, as Hamlin said the kitchen they were in was bugged -- and "we were actually in the audition while we were making the cake," as some kind of chemistry test between the two actors.

"I'd been riffing on how annoying Steven Spielberg was to my friend Amy, so hey, guess what? I didn't get the part, OK, and I've never worked with Steven Spielberg, and I grant you that I never will work with Steven Spielberg and I never learned how to make a cake," said Hamlin.

Irving, of course, would later be married to Spielberg from 1985-1989, while Ford was eventually cast as Indy in all four movies. In a bizarre twist of fate, Hamlin's fantasy epic "Clash of the Titans" would open opposite "Raiders of the Lost Ark" on June, 12 1981.