Kathie Lee Gifford still remembers the name of a “cruel” casting agent who criticized her looks over 30 years ago.
During an interview with People published Thursday, the former talk show host recalled being told she wasn’t “pretty” enough to star in “Charlie’s Angles,” which aired from 1976 to 1981.
Gifford, 70, explained that she was sick with the flu one day when her agent called to say there was an opening on the hit ABC series and she needed to get out of bed and head to the studio.
However, when she got there, the former “Today” co-host was immediately shot down by the casting director.
“She goes, ‘Let me tell you right now, you’re not right for ‘Charlie’s Angels,’” Gifford recalled.
When asked why, the woman bluntly told her they were “looking for a pretty girl” like Jaclyn Smith, who played Kelly Garrett in the television series.
The agent said they needed someone “gorgeous” — and Gifford didn’t fit the bill.
“It was like kicking me to the gut. I started to think it was funny. I really did,” Gifford recalled. “And as I’m walking out, I looked at her and I said, ‘Okay, well, thank you so much.’”
Despite her defeat, the actress tried to make light of the situation, telling the bitter woman to call her when they were “casting a cartoon.”
“I started to see, first of all, what a bitch she was,” she explained. “What an unnecessary bitch she was.
“She didn’t say, ‘Sorry, honey, have a nice life. You’re not what we’re looking for,’” she continued. “She had to be cruel.”
The “First Wives Club” star said the woman was “the exact opposite” of the type of person her dad “taught [her] to be.”
“The fact that I remember her name to this day is because she was so cruel,” she added.
However, since Gifford’s career in show business began at just 10, she had a sense of how “brutal” the industry can be from a young age.
During a 2018 interview, the talk show host explained that she learned to deal with “rejection” early on.
“It’s nonstop,” she said, pointing to that same instance with the “Charlie’s Angels” casting agent.
“Spotlights are tough because some people die under them,” she said. “I came to life under them.”
Although she didn’t land the crime-fighting drama series, Gifford made a name for herself in daytime television, starring on “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee” for over a decade before joining “Today.”