Actor Jackson Rathbone, known for his role as Jasper Cullen in the Twilight film franchise, is opening up about a nerve-racking audition.
Entertainment Weekly reported that the actor shared his “most embarrassing moment of [his] career” while on a panel at the August 17 Chicago Fan Expo. He explained that he had auditioned for an abandoned adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Dark Tower that Ron Howard was set to direct, before he was cast in the first Twilight film, which premiered in 2008. For the audition, Rathbone was sent before Howard, who produced the 2017 version of The Dark Tower, alongside Akiva Goldsman and Erica Huggins.
Rathbone said he was “very nervous” about the situation, causing his childhood stutter to come “back harder than it’s ever happened to [him] before.”
“He goes, ‘Hey, Jackson, it’s really nice to meet you.’ I’m like, in my head, ‘Freaking Ron Howard knows my name, crazy!’ He’s like, ‘So I heard you’re in a band. Tell me about it.’ And I’m like, yeah, ‘Yeah, I, I, I, I’m, I’m, I’m a, I’m a, I’m- I’m gonna, I’m, I’m in a- I’m in a band,'” recalled the actor, per Entertainment Weekly. “That’s how I started the meeting and it went downhill from there. I go out to my car and I know it didn’t go well because I was making a fool of myself but Ron Howard is the sweetest man ever. He just kind of laughed it off, just kept going, didn’t even make a deal of it. It was super sweet.”
According to Rathbone, he found the situation so upsetting that he “literally cried in [his] car for 30 minutes after this.” He said, however, that a different actor encouraged him to not dwell on it.
“Somebody told me they’re like, ‘Listen, you think that’s the first time that’s happened to Ron Howard? You think it’s the very first time that he’s had someone go in there, audition or read with him and be embarrassed?’ And I was like, ‘No, probably not.’ And they’re like, ‘You’re fine, look forward, don’t look behind,'” said Rathbone during the Fan Expo panel.
Rathbone opened up about his experience landing the role of Jasper during the 2025 GalaxyCon, featuring his Twilight co-stars, Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli, and Ashley Greene. While on the June 2025 panel, Greene referenced that Rathbone was “short-listed” for the role of Edward Cullen, who was played by Robert Pattinson. According to Rathbone, his audition impressed the first Twilight film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke.
“So they brought me in, and Catherine and I really connected, so I was shortlisted for Edward,” said Rathbone.
Eventually, Rathbone was offered the role of Jasper.
