When Axel Webber Was Rejected From Juilliard, the Internet Stepped In
The New York Times
The 22-year-old actor documented his audition process for the world to see and became a star along the way.
On Monday morning, Axel Webber, a 22-year-old from Cumming, Ga., a town outside Atlanta, posted a TikTok updating his followers on an audition he’d completed the day before on Zoom for the Juilliard School’s undergraduate drama program. For the past month, Mr. Webber had used the platform to talk about his dreams of attending the prestigious, highly competitive drama school and the big audition that was required for the admissions process.
When the verdict from Juilliard came in, Mr. Webber pulled up the message on his computer and read it aloud for his audience of 2.4 million followers on TikTok. It was a rejection. “You are no longer under consideration for admission for Fall 2022,” he read. Mr. Webber looked crestfallen. “Now, we’re going to have to find a different way to be an actor. Thanks for watching the journey,” he said. A Juilliard spokesperson declined to comment about Mr. Webber’s admission for this article.
On Monday night, tens of thousands of Mr. Webber’s fans flooded Juilliard’s Instagram account to express their anger.