Tim Robbins' Wild Night Nearly Cost Him His First TV Role

Tim Robbins nearly lost his chance to appear on St. Elsewhere after making a rookie mistake on set. The Shawshank Redemption star recently revealed that he overslept and arrived late for his second day of filming, putting his role in the medical drama at risk. Tim Robbins says a late night at a Clash concert led him to oversleep while filming St. Elsewhere According to Entertainment Weekly, Robbins described the setting against which the offer came to him in a GQ video. He said,. 'I'd been auditioning for showbiz parts for a good six, seven months at that point and not gotten anything.' 'I auditioned for St. Elsewhere, and I guess because it was a horrible terrorist person, something clicked,' the actor said. 'I didn't know it was a big deal at the time, because I was mostly interested in doing theater, but this one seemed to have a really good script,' he added. Though Robbins successfully went through the first day, things got awry on the second day. 'My second day of shooting was the day after the Clash were playing at the Palladium in Hollywood, and that was my favorite group,' he explained. 'And I got tickets, and I got in the mosh pit and went hard for two and a half hours.' Exhausted with his antics, the actor went to bed but overslept into the morning of his second day. 'I was really late for my second day of work,' he said. 'Kids out there, don't do that ever. Even if it's the Clash.' The executive produce later told him that the decision-makers 'would have fired you if you hadn't shot that first day.' The actor described the incident was a 'huge learning lesson' for him as a young actor. 'It was basically asking me: Are you going to be serious about this or not?' he said. 'It was a good experience to have early on because it taught me a tremendous amount about the professionalism of the business,' he added. After 'St. Elsewhere', Robbins would follow up with films like 'Top Gun', 'Bull Durham', and 'Mystic River'. He received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the latter.