Alyson Hannigan says she totally bombed her 'Buffy' audition
Poor Willow.
February 4, 2020 9:24 a.m.
Latest Update February 6, 2020 11:00 p.m.

What Hannigan didn’t know at the time was that her messing up those lines is exactly what made Whedon decide to cast her. He later told her, “You couldn’t say the words to save your life, but I knew right then and there because the chemistry was there.” He was perhaps referring to Gellar’s facial reactions, which according to Hannigan read something like, “This poor girl… What did you just do?’”Because that’s obviously not enough stress, it’s also worth pointing out that Willow was the last character to be cast; the creatives had already shot a pilot with another actress, Riff Regan, in the role. Obviously Whedon and co. didn’t think she had the right chemistry, and they started looking high and low for someone who could fill that oh-so-important spot. You could say there was a lot at stake.“I was determined that we wouldn’t have the supermodel in horn rims that you usually see on a TV show,” Whedon said on the Welcome to the Hellmouth DVD commentary. “I wanted somebody who really had their own shy quirkiness. While the network and I were looking for people, Alyson Hannigan slipped under our radar. She came in and we didn’t really know that she was going to be the guy, and then when she read for the network we were just blown away. She brings so much light and so much tenderness to the role, it’s kind of extraordinary.”It seems like Hannigan really isn’t as bad at auditions as she thinks. After playing Willow for seven seasons, Hannigan went on to land another career-defining role as Lily Aldrin in How I Met Your Mother, a gig she had for nine seasons. Next up she’s playing host for the four-part Food Network show Girl Scout Cookie Championship.Hannigan reveals that she did have one moment where she knew it was going to work out. She goes on to tell People that she was visiting her grandmother in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics when she got that first call-back for Buffy. So her family had to cut the trip short, which sort of cheesed her grandma since she never got to see her.“We were driving to the airport and I remember sitting in the backseat and my grandma was like, ‘When are you going to give up this childhood acting thing?’ She did it from a place of wanting me to move back, but the moment she said it [I knew] she just clinched this for me. Because that’s the thing you always hear people say, ‘Oh as soon as they told me to give up that’s when I struck gold.’ She just did it. And then I wound up getting it.”So what did Grandma think of Hannigan’s new gig at the time?“She was like, ‘What is it called’? She never understood the show.”