Patrick Fugit actually found out about “Almost Famous” because a friend of his was auditioning for the lead role, according to an interview with Independent. “He needed a ride to do this audition tape at his agency,” the actor remembered. “And I was like, ‘OK, cool,’ and I listened to him do it outside the room.” Fugit continued, “Afterward, I was like, ‘These scenes are very good — what is this film?'” His friend told Fugit it was a Cameron Crowe picture and introduced him to the films “Say Anything” and “Jerry Maguire.”
The premise of “Almost Famous” was totally shrouded in mystery during the early audition process. “[The audition scenes] were all written to be about a political journalist following a politician on his campaign, because Cameron didn’t want to let on that it was about music at first,” Fugit explained. He filmed “three random, rapid-fire scenes throughout” that included his introduction to Penny Lane and their confrontation in the forest, per Comingsoon.net. Of course, Fugit had no idea he would be delivering those lines to a groupie — sorry, band-aid — played by Kate Hudson.
Two months after submitting his audition tape, the teenage actor got a call to Utah from Hollywood — he had received a callback. “They flew me and my mom out to LA first class and put us up in a hotel and I did my audition there,” Fugit told Independent. “Anyway, I went up into Cameron’s office and I didn’t know what he looked like. But there he was, this guy with long dark hair, a T-shirt, a pair of cargo shorts on and, I think, he was in flip flops. He was super informal.”