Jon Hamm and Dax Shepard recall losing Step Brothers role to Adam Scott: 'I was resentful'

It's been 16 years, and Jon Hamm and Dax Shepard are both still bummed that they didn't land the role of bratty younger brother Derek in Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly's classic comedy Step Brothers. 

The Mad Men star and the CHiPs actor, who have each flexed their comedic chops over the years, recalled their respective failed auditions on Tuesday's episode of Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast.

As Hamm tells it, he was in the waiting room with Adam Scott, who ultimately got the part, and Rob Riggle, who later landed the role of Derek's best friend Randy, when he overheard Riggle's audition and realized he needed to step his game up.

"I could hear Riggle going full Riggle in the room. I'm literally like, 'He's gonna break through the wall, like he's the Kool-Aid Man, he's such a big choice guy,'" Hamm said. "I'm like, 'I gotta go 180 from that.' I just whispered it, and I did not get that part."

Shepard noted that losing out on the Derek role was one of "a handful of times" in which he was passed up and found himself getting mad about it afterward.

"I haven't had that many of those though, have you?" Hamm asked. "A bunch of times I've been like, 'It's probably not gonna be that good a movie,' and then it wasn't. [Step Brothers] was one that was really good; I wish I was in it."

Shepard admitted that he "didn’t know Adam Scott that well" when the film's casting was announced. "I wasn't friends with him yet, now I think he's like the greatest," he said. "So he got that and I was resentful, and then I saw it and was like, 'Oh yeah, he's done it much better than I could have and he deserves it.'"

That’s not the only unsuccessful audition that has stuck with Shepard over the years. The Idiocracy actor said that he once got to "the finish line" of casting for James McAvoy's role in the 2008 action film Wanted — before McAvoy, who'd temporarily turned down the role, returned to the project.

"I didn't know who James McAvoy was, and then about four months later, I go and see The Last King of Scotland and I'm having a transcendent experience watching this guy act," he recalled. "To the point where I tell my girlfriend, I've gotta f---ing write this guy's name down when the credits come up. I gotta see everything he's done."

He added, "And it comes up and it's this guy that I was hating, and I was like, 'God bless, I would never hire me over this guy.'"

Listen to the podcast above for more from Hamm and Shepard.

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