Actress Amy Huberman told how she was dropped from an American TV pilot - eight hours after landing the gig.
The wife of former Ireland rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll said she travelled to Los Angeles to audition for a pilot for a new show, 'Animal Practice' in 2012.
She said she landed the gig – but ruthless TV bosses dropped her eight hours later from the show.
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She said: “I had done a pilot that I was dropped from like in the space of eight hours and that was really bad because I was filming something that was a comedy, so I had to be funny.
“That was years ago. I had no kids. I skipped town and went over there. It was a really fun week.
“Ben, who is still my manager, says ‘do you want to go for an audition?’ You go into these big huge Paramount studios, it’s kind of mad. People were filming Glee were driving past you in buggies.
“So yeah, it was really fun, I did this audition,” she told Doireann Garrihy on the Laughs of your Life podcast.
“Went in and you have to do this whole process where you have to test for the network, which is really scary..
“I did it and they were like ‘do you have a visa’ and I was like ‘no’ so you sign a thing over there for seven years. It’s like a legal contract and you go to jail if you sign and don’t deliver,” she said laughing.
“I was ringing home going to Brian ‘I know you still are playing for Ireland, but I might have to go and live in America, I think I signed something and I might not be able to get. How long is left on your contract?’,” she said laughing.
“He was lovely. He was like ‘life is whatever’ and the chances of a pilot getting picked up are so tiny.
“And then I did get it… so they sent me home, got the visa, then we went back and started filming. So we filmed it and it was great craic.”
But the Finding Joy star said she was getting nervous at how well the pilot was being received by American audiences that she started to realise she didn’t really want to live in California.
“People score you… then I was meant to go to New York for the upfronts. It’s a big huge advertising thing that happens with the network pilots, where you get flown to New York and they announce all their shows. It’s a big deal.”
She said she nearly vomited in the show when her manager called her to tell her she was going to be moving to LA.
“I got into the shower and I nearly vomited… but by the time I was going home, I was like pack the bag, Brian was like ‘brilliant, it’s great, let’s do it, we’ll figure it out’. And then I was in the car on the way home, they said ‘you’ve been replaced.’
“It felt like 40 seconds later. It is such a rollercoaster. That happens morning, noon and night… you can get fired at table reads..
“It wasn’t great at the time because I just felt so vulnerable and exposing. And it’s very public.”
To Amy's later amusement, show turned out to be a flop and was cancelled soon after it hit screens in the US.
The 43-year-old Dubliner also opened up about being a mother-of-three, saying welcoming her third baby Ted was something she never thought was ever going to happen.”
She said having a third baby in lockdown wasn’t difficult for her – but she felt sorry for new mums who were having their first.
“Ted has been a joy because I was so happy to have a third and I wasn’t sure it was ever going to happen, so it was a really lovely time where things slowed down and I wasn’t scared because I had two babies before.
“I think anyone who had their first in lockdown makes me want to weep for them and maybe that’s because I just found becoming a mum just so seismic and I was so all over the place afterwards. Then I had my second son so close to my daughter so I just feel like it was a rolling three years of I don’t know… I just found everything hard to get a grasp on my life with kids and as well because I had no routine in my acting life. It was so chaotic.
“And actually, that was around the time when Brian was retiring. There was a lot happening,” she added.
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