Meryl Streep has been nominated for 18 Academy Awards and 29 Golden Globes, including one for Into the Woods this Sunday, but she hasn't always been the actress of choice.

On The Graham Norton Show on Jan. 9, the Into the Woods star recalled a time when she auditioned for the 1976 film King Kong with producer Dino De Laurentiis. His son had seen a then-unknown Meryl in a play and brought her in to audition for the role of Dwan.

Since Streep, 65, knew Italian, she understood Dino's words as he asked his son, “Why do you bring me this ugly thing?”

She then responded in Italian, saying, "I’m sorry I’m not beautiful enough to be in King Kong.”

Streep can laugh about it now, but as Norton says, "young actors should take solace" knowing that there was a time where even a legendary actress had a bad audition.



WATCH: Meryl Reveals Her Surprising Celebrity Crush

Go behind the scenes with Meryl in Into the Woods below.

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