David Bowie Auditioned for Lord of the Rings

It’s long been rumored that David Bowie wanted a part in Lord of the Rings; director Peter Jackson reportedly turned him down for the part of Elrond, the elf king, because he was too famous in his own right. It seems the rumors were true: In a new interview with Huffington Post, cast member Dominic Monaghan, who played the hobbit Merry, says he spotted Bowie in the casting agency’s office after his audition. 

“I was at the Hubbard’s, which is a pretty notorious casting agency office in London, doing an audition for Lord of the Rings,” Monaghan told Huffington Post. After his audition, he says he was asked to wait at reception for feedback. “As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in. And I’m assuming he read for Gandalf. I can’t think of anything else he would’ve read for. He may have read for something else, but I’m a huge David Bowie fan, and I was lucky enough to know his son now so just seeing him in person was pretty special to me.”

It was recently reported that a sequel to Bowie’s 1986 film Labyrinth is in the works.

Read our “Afterword” feature on Bowie and “Anthems for the Moon: David Bowie’s Sci-Fi Explorations.”

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