Olivia Wilde recalls Tom Cruise being 'so encouraging' during Rock of Ages audition

Olivia Wilde has recalled Tom Cruise being "so encouraging" when they sang together for her Rock of Ages audition.

The former O.C. actress has revealed that she had to sing with the Hollywood star while auditioning for the role of Constance Sack, a Rolling Stone reporter, in the 2012 jukebox musical. The role ultimately went to Malin Akerman.

Recalling the audition in a chat with Seth Rogen on The A24 Podcast, Wilde shared that Cruise, who had already been cast as rock star Stacee Jaxx, was "such a nice man" during her try-out.

He added that "he was so encouraging" when they sang Foreigner's I Want To Know What Love Is, which Wilde noted is "not an easy song".

To make his The Invite co-star feel better, Rogen joked that she dodged a bullet losing out on the role because the film "wasn't very good".

The Cowboys & Aliens star also revealed that she auditioned for the lead role in the 2013 sci-fi thriller Gravity, and the casting team made her pretend she was returning to Earth for her audition scene.

"They put us in a pod. It felt very legit because they had a real pod," she remembered. "It was the moment when it was the crawling out of the pod back onto Earth and you had to discover Earth again... There was like some fake grass."

"When I think of the footage that exists...," Wilde said, referring to an audition tape of her crawling around on fake grass in a room.

Wilde speculated that "everyone" from her Hollywood age group probably auditioned for the role, such as Kate Hudson, Jessica Chastain, Sienna Miller, Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway, but Sandra Bullock ultimately got the part.

Wilde and Rogen currently star in The Invite, which she also directed. The comedy-drama, which also stars Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz, is now showing in cinemas.