Hey, you have to shoot your shot.
During the Oc. 7 episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, Rami Malek explained how he did just that when he was first starting out as an actor in Los Angeles. "Every job I had was, like, to deliver pizzas," he recalled, "and I'd stick my headshot into the pizza box."
Every pizza box, including ones delivered to loyal customers George Clooney and Andy Garcia. After all, he had a surplus to hand out. "I thought if I bought them in bulk, they would be cheaper," he said. "So I bought, like, 500 of them of which I still have probably have 420.
Thankfully, his efforts paid off. "I got an audition," Malek said. "I don't think I got a callback. I think it was for, like, an M&M's commercial. But I was just like, 'Yeah, do it. I mean, what do you have to lose?'"
Not much. In fact, he only had something to gain.
"I slipped them in every manila envelope, sent them to all my agents….Nobody called back for a year," the No Time to Die actor said. "Then I got one callback."
That call was for a Gilmore Girls audition. "I submitted myself for a casting and the casting director called me back," Malek remembered. "She said, 'Can I speak to Rami Malek's agent?' I said, 'Speaking.' She goes, 'What company is this?' I go, 'Well…' She goes, 'Is this Rami Malek?' I go, 'Yeah.' She starts laughing. She goes, 'Do you have a SAG card, honey?' I said, 'No, but we can work on that.'"
In the end, the charming Oscar winner convinced her to give him a chance. "I just said, 'You know, I'm 15 minutes away from Warner Bros. Bring me in, and let's see how it goes,'" he said. "And I was just very presumptuous. She brought me in that day, got the call back and that was it. Got the gig—next day."
But did he ever get that interview with Assistant Pastor Eric? Gilmore Girls fans will never know…