Frida Gustavsson from ‘Vikings: Valhalla’ auditioned for Star Wars

Sometimes it’s fun to think about what could have been: for example, Jake Gyllenhaal auditioned for Frodo in Lord of the Rings (weird!), and John Krasinski was just a patriotic costume away from Captain America.

Now we’re finding out that Frida Gustavsson, who plays all around badass Freydis Eriksdotter in Vikings: Valhalla, could have been swinging around a lightsaber in Star Wars: The Force Awakens instead of a real sword in Vikings.

In a conversation with Collider, the 28-year-old actress and model revealed that despite an extremely successful modeling career, she couldn’t shake the acting bug. Her first audition? Yup, only one of the biggest franchises of all time.

“That was kind of in the death part of my modeling career,” she quipped. “I was still living in New York. I had a modeling agent who was amazing at IMG Models, and she knew that I was kind of on the way out and I think she wanted to help me facilitate the bridge and, of course, the first audition she comes up with is Star Wars.”

So she obviously didn’t get the part. But hey, that’s Hollywood. She did share that she realized very quickly the banthian task that a role of that caliber would represent.

“I think I did a decent enough job, but I was not prepared to do something of that scale and I’m incredibly glad that I didn’t end up getting it now because I would have absolutely tanked it. But it’s double, you know? In a way, I was like, wow, it’s incredible to get to read text of that quality and to work at that level, or to try to work at that level so soon. But also, it’s quite interesting when you approach it totally green and totally fresh, and you don’t really realize how big it is to get to do something like that and who the people on the other side of the self-tape are.”

And it wasn’t all for naught. Like any good artist, she took away some important lessons from the process.

“I learned so much just about initially doing self-tapes and then coming and meeting someone, about how much time it takes, how much I actually really enjoy doing self-tapes, and how far you can (go) and how people actually want to see your perspective. I mean, that’s why you’re doing a self-tape. That’s why you’re not in the room.”

The first season of Vikings: Valhalla is now streaming on Netflix.