Oscar winner Russell Crowe has refuted a claim that he gave a bad audition for the 1997 Julia Roberts-starrer ”My Best Friend’s Wedding”.

Crowe took to Twitter to post a response to a book excerpt in which the hit romantic comedy’s director, PJ Hogan, said he tried to rope in the actor opposite Roberts but it turned out to be ”one of the worst table reads”.

”Pure imagination on behalf of this director. I did not audition for this film. I have never done a table read with the actress mentioned. Would be funny if it wasn’t so pointless,” the 58-year-old New Zealand actor tweeted.

In the excerpt from author Scott Meslow’s book ”From Hollywood With Love”, Hogan detailed the experience of auditioning Crowe for the part of Michael, the titular best friend ultimately played by Dermot Mulroney in the movie. ”It was one of the worst table reads I’ve ever experienced. Russell was seated opposite Julia. He gripped that script, and he stared at that script, and he didn’t look at her once,” Hogan said.

According to the director, Crowe read every line in a monotone.

”At one point, Julia was literally leaning over the table, staring, like, inches from Russell’s face, trying to make eye contact. And he wouldn’t look at her. At the end of the reading, Russell came up to me and said, ‘I thought that went pretty well.’ And then I knew: Russell was not going to be in ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’,” Hogan said.

”My Best Friend’s Wedding”, which also featured Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett, was about a woman (Roberts), whose long-time friend reveals he has been engaged. She realises she loves him herself and sets out to get him, with only days before the wedding.

The film performed well at the global box office and was also lauded by the critics for the story as well as the performances by the lead cast.

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