Haley feared losing 'Watchmen' to A-lister

Jackie Earle Haley has revealed that he almost missed out on a role in Watchmen when producers were looking to cast A-list actors in the movie.

Speaking to Digital Spy at the movie's world premiere, the actor said that he made his own Rorschach audition tape to convince director Zack Snyder to hire him.

He explained: "I heard they were going to put movie stars in it and I was like, 'No!'. I called my agent and kept bugging him and he was like, 'Dude, let it go, it's not going to happen'. Then I got a call and he said, 'Looks like they're doing something different, so let's not wait'.

"I did an audition tape and sent it in. I literally made a Rorschach Halloween costume and a bunch of my friends came over and we took half a day to shoot it, half a day to edit it, and we sent it to Zack."

Actors such as Tom Cruise, Jude Law and Simon Pegg had been linked with roles in Watchmen during its earlier incarnations under filmmakers Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass.

> Click here for our video coverage of the Watchmen premiere