VIDEO: Rare pre-fame celebrity audition tapes

Do you think that in 2014, major stars like Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, or Robert De Niro would have to audition for a role? Not a chance.

But as the video above shows, those Hollywood icons (along with a boatload of other film and television actors) all had to audition for roles during their careers. Even the biggest A-list actors have had to audition at some point, and even after they've established themselves, things like screen tests are almost always part of the filmmaking process.

The rare audition videos and screen tests open up some fascinating "what if?" scenarios. What if Robert De Niro had played Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather" instead of James Caan? Neither Brad Pitt nor Robert Downey Jr. ended up being cast in “Backdraft” (the role ultimately went to Billy Baldwin), but seeing their auditions makes you wonder what the movie would have been like with them instead. Would Billy Baldwin still have a career if Pitt or Downey had been cast? Would Pitt or Downey have the careers they'd had if they had starred in the firefighter drama?

An very different history of Hollywood is written in these lost audition tapes.