The 2008 J.J. Abrams-produced found footage giant monster film Cloverfield is a movie that I genuinely enjoy. It’s raucous, exciting, and shows that kind of genre from a perspective that isn’t normally focused upon, which is everything the characters go through without getting us to empathize with the creature. And speaking of the characters, they’re actually rather charming and entertaining in their own way, which makes the movie all the better.

But did you know that “Breaking Bad” alum Aaron Paul auditioned for a role in the movie and, in his own words, “It was awful“? Paul, who had just appeared in a small role in Abrams’ Mission Impossible 3, went in for an audition and things quickly fell apart.

Paul tells fellow thespian Tom Hiddelston in a clip from “Variety Studios: Actors on Actors” all about the experience, which was ruined by the recollection of a poorly performed magic trick, of all things. The story is that Paul was told to tell Abrams that he loves magic, which led Abrams to have him perform a card trick in front of the entire MI3 cast, including Tom Cruise. Alas, the trick “…fails miserably, it’s terrible.”

“I went into this audition for ‘Cloverfield.’ J.J. Abrams was producing it and I kept asking if J.J. was going to be in the room and 100% of the time they said “No, he’s out of the state”. I walk in and J.J.’s there. He brings up the magic trick story and I lose my train of thought. I have three pages of a monologue that I memorized. That was my audition. He has me tell the story about the card trick and now I’m super awkward. He’s like, “Now let’s get started,” and I start doing this monologue and I completely lose my train of thought and I stop and I apologize to J.J. He’s like ‘that’s okay. Thanks for coming in.’ I’m like’ see ya’ and I walked out. It was awful.

You can see the full interview below.