'Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies' star says she thought she was auditioning for a minor role instead of the lead one

• "Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies" star Marisa Davila told Insider she accidentally auditioned for the lead role.
• She said she had nine self-tapes to do on the day of her audition so she didn't read the brief in full.

"Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies" star Marisa Davila said she didn't initially realize she was auditioning to play the lead character.

Davila plays Jane in the new "Grease" prequel series on Paramount +. Jane is a high school student who becomes ostracized by her school peers after a rumor goes around that she lost her virginity to her boyfriend. After being humiliated, she forms a girl-gang with other misfits.

Davila told Insider that she accidentally auditioned for the lead role because she had so many self-tape videos to do that day and didn't properly read the brief for her character.

"I got the audition for 'Grease' on a day where I had nine auditions to do and so it was like a marathon relay of self-tapes," Davila said. "So, I was like, I had just done one. I was like, 'Cool.' Set it aside. I picked it up. Ooh, 'Grease.' That's a musical. Fun. Awesome. Jane. She's the nerd. I didn't even have time. I genuinely didn't have time to break it down as much as I would have because the self-tapes are such quick turnaround and there were so many to do. It was maybe like a 48-hour limit."

She continued: "I really didn't know how big of a deal Jane was. I must have just skimmed over the fact that she was a serious regular. Honestly, I thought she was like a recurring or guest star just even based off her character description because somebody like her hasn't been focused on in media before. That was a big shock to me."

Davila added that she found out she was cast on Thanksgiving.

"I was so proud. I was so excited. But I was just relieved that all the hard work was for something," the 25-year-old actor said.

The new prequel series follows the formation of the Pink Ladies, the girl group that was prominent in the original "Grease" movie.

"Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies" is available to stream on Paramount+.