James Marsden "clucked" like a chicken for his and his pal's failed try-out for 'Saturday Night Live'.

The 51-year-old actor had always wanted to be part of the main cast of the legendary late-night sketch show before launching his acting career, but his dreams were quicky dashed after he performed a "silly" routine with his friend in a bid to land the job at NBC.

Recalling the failed audition on 'Live with Kelly and Mark, he shared: "They did a nationwide talent search and a friend of mine in my drama class, or whatever, who I used to do these humorous sketches with, said, 'Let's go down and audition for it.'

"I think they made us do… It wasn't even something like, 'Create an interesting character,' or whatever. It was like, 'Do whatever silly thing you want to do.' I don't know why we chose to do this, but we clucked like chickens and just walked around each other.

"Yeah, it was a bad choice."

James discussed his 'SNL' dream with Tina Fey, 54, who was a cast member and head writer for the comedy show from1997 to 2006.

The 'Mean Girls' star - who went on to create the NBC sitcom '30 Rock' - told the 'X-Men' star he "probably" could land his dream gig if he wanted to.

He recalled: "I did 30 Rock for a bit with Tina Fey, and I said, 'You know, my dream was always to be on SNL. And she goes, 'Oh, well, you'll host at some point.' And I go, 'No, as a regular. I wanna be the guys!' She was like, 'Well, you probably can if you want to.' But yeah, I just love doing impressions and different characters."