Gist to describe problems testing actors which are instantiated in a Play2 controller.

Application.scala

package controllers

import scala.concurrent.duration._
import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.Implicits._

import play.api.Play.current
import play.api.libs.concurrent.Akka
import play.api.mvc._

import akka.actor._
import akka.actor.actorRef2Scala
import akka.pattern.ask
import akka.util._
import akka.util.Timeout.durationToTimeout

object Application extends Controller {

  val justAnActor = Akka.system.actorOf(Props[JustAnActor], "justAnActor")
  implicit val timeout: Timeout = 5 seconds

  def index = Action.async {
    (justAnActor ? "Akka").mapTo[String]
      .map(answer => Ok(answer))
  }
}

class JustAnActor extends Actor {

  def receive = {
    case _: String => sender ! s"Hello Akka"
  }
}

ApplicationSpec.scala

import org.junit.runner.RunWith
import play.api.test._
import org.specs2.runner.JUnitRunner
import scala.concurrent.Await
import scala.concurrent.duration._
import org.specs2.mutable.Specification


@RunWith(classOf[JUnitRunner])
class ApplicationSpec extends PlaySpecification {

  sequential 
  
 
  "FakeApplication" should {

    "send OK 1" in new WithApplication{
      //route(FakeRequest(GET, "/")).get
      val home = route(FakeRequest(GET, "/")).get
      status(home) must equalTo(OK)
    }

    "send OK 2" in new WithApplication{
      val home = route(FakeRequest(GET, "/")).get

      status(home) must equalTo(OK)
    }
  }
  
  "Controller" should {

    "send OK 1" in new WithApplication {
      val result = Await.result(controllers.Application.index(FakeRequest("GET","/")) , 5 seconds)
      result.header.status must beEqualTo(200)
    }

    "send OK 2" in new WithApplication {
      val result = Await.result(controllers.Application.index(FakeRequest("GET","/")) , 5 seconds)
      result.header.status must beEqualTo(200)
    }
  }
}