Casting director told Barbara Eden she wouldn’t make it because she didn’t have ‘big tits’ (exclu...

The executive showed the “I Dream of Jeannie” star a picture of his daughter and said, “This is what they want.” Casting director told Barbara Eden she wouldn’t make it because she didn’t have ‘big tits’ (exclusive) The executive showed the “I Dream of Jeannie” star a picture of his daughter and said, “This is what they want.” By Rance Collins August 30, 2026 4:24 p.m. ET Leave a Comment :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/BarbaraEdenportrait1960PalmadeMallorcaSpain082926e0fd6e6860de44ae8c9742a85e712797.jpg) Barbara Eden circa 1960; Barbara Eden in April 2024.

The executive showed the “I Dream of Jeannie” star a picture of his daughter and said, “This is what they want.”

Casting director told Barbara Eden she wouldn’t make it because she didn’t have ‘big tits’ (exclusive)

The executive showed the “I Dream of Jeannie” star a picture of his daughter and said, “This is what they want.”

By Rance Collins

August 30, 2026 4:24 p.m. ET

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Barbara Eden circa 1960; Barbara Eden in April 2024. Credit:

TPLP/Getty; Franziska Krug/Getty

- Barbara Eden was told by a casting director that she needed “big tits” to make it in Hollywood.

- “You’re a pretty enough girl,” he said. “But you’re not beautiful. You won’t make it.”

- Not long after, the future *I Dream of Jeannie *actress ran into the same executive again.

If Barbara Eden had listened to this casting director, we might never have had Jeannie.

When the *I Dream of Jeannie* actress first got to Hollywood, she was on the audition circuit, trying to break into show business. The California Bay Area native tells ** in an exclusive interview about one early encounter with a casting director in the 1950s.

“When I first came down [to] L.A., I was sent by a friend of a friend who knew the casting director at Warner Brothers, and I didn’t know how to drive — you know, live in San Francisco, you don’t drive a car usually, right?” Eden explains. “My uncle drove me over to Warner Bros. for the interview, and he waited outside.”

But this exciting opportunity quickly turned sour.

Barbara Eden in ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ in 1967.

Silver Screen Collection/Getty

“I went in, and the man was, ‘Okay,’ kind of abrupt,” Eden continues. “And he said, ‘Look ... you’re just not the type. You’re not. You’re not Hollywood type.”

To emphasize what the Hollywood type was, the exec took a photo out to show Eden.

“He said, ‘This is what they want. This is a picture of my daughter. *Big tits*,’” Eden remembers. “Can you believe? I mean, and of course .... nowadays that wouldn’t be a big deal, but I wasn’t raised for a man in my family to even say the word ‘tits’ ... Lord, I was just shocked. He said, ‘You’re a pretty enough girl,’ he said, ‘But you’re not beautiful ... You won’t make it. Go home and marry the boyfriend at home.’”

But Hollywood is fickle, as Eden learned just a few short months later.

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“I don’t know if he even remembered, like five months later,” Eden says.** **“[An acting] coach at Warner Bros. invited me to be a part of their class, which I was happy to do. And I was walking down to get to the class, and I heard, ‘Hey, hey, you,’ and I thought, ‘Oh boy, just keep going,’ because I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there. And, ‘Hey, you in the yellow pants?!’ Well, I had yellow slacks on. I turned around and guess who it was?”

It was, indeed, the same casting director who had deemed Eden unworthy of Hollywood stardom.

“My heart dropped down to my feet, and I thought, ‘Oh boy, this is it,’” Eden recalls. “And he said, “Are you in here seeing [the acting coach]?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ He said, ‘Have they tested you yet?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Okay, we’re going to test you.’ Can you believe that?”

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Of course, Eden would quickly find herself steadily working in film and television, appearing in major guest spots on *I Love Lucy** *and *The Andy Griffith Show*, as well as starring roles in movies such as *Flaming Star* and *The Brass Bottle*.

Fans can hear more stories from Eden’s decades-long career when she introduces one of her early films, 1961’s *All Hands On Deck*, with the movie’s costar Pat Boone on Sept. 5 at the Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles. For tickets and information, visit Cinecon’s website.

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Published: August 30, 2026 at 11:57PM on Source: MORNING MAG

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