James Marsden bombed an “SNL” audition because he clucked like a chicken

Although James Marsden managed to land a guest role on NBC’s “30 Rock,” he failed to become a studio regular after botching his “Saturday Night Live” tryout.

The “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” star said on a Dec. 18 episode of “Live with Kelly and Mark” that he once auditioned for the prolific sketch comedy show, “if you can call it that,” but was then rejected. Failing to follow the talent scouts’ instructions.

“They were doing a nationwide talent search and a friend of mine from my acting class or whatever, who I did these humorous skits with, said, ‘Let’s go and audition for this.’ I think they made us want to “create an interesting character” or whatever,” Marsden said. “It was like, ‘Do whatever stupid thing you want to do.’ I don’t know why we decided to do it, but we clucked like chickens and just walked around each other.”

In hindsight, Marsden admitted that settling on the chicken piece was “a bad decision.”

Marsden added that he would “love” to host “SNL” one day, recalling a time when he expressed his desire to his “30 Rock” co-star and “SNL” legend Tina Fey to take part in the show.

“I did ’30 Rock’ with Tina Fey for a while,” Marsden said. “And I said, ‘You know, my dream was always to be on SNL.’ And she says, “Well, you’ll host at some point.” And I say, “No, as a regular.” I want to be the boys!’ She was like, ‘Well, you probably can if you want.’ But yeah, I just love doing impressions and different characters.”

This year “Saturday Night Live” was broadcast for the 50th time. This Saturday, former cast member Martin Short will host, accompanied by musical guest Hozier.