David Bowie Auditioned for a Role in Peter Jackson's THE LORD OF THE RINGS
Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings could have been interestingly different if David Bowie were cast in it. The actor, who played the famous Goblin King in Labyrinth, auditioned for a role in the fantasy epic. The news came from Dominic Monaghan, who said he saw Bowie go in for an audition. The actor told The Huffington Post:
"I was at the Hubbard's, which is a pretty notorious casting agency office in London, doing an audition for Lord of the Rings, and when it ended I went over and talked to John Hubbard, who was running the audition, and he said, 'Hey, it went really well. You should wait around for 5 or 10 mins. We'll give you some feedback. I thought, 'Oh, OK, cool, and I sat in the reception office. 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's rumored that Bowie actually wanted to take on the role of Elrond, the elf lord of Rivendell. I have to admit, even though I loved Hugo Weaving in the part, Bowie would have been just as awesome in the role! It's not hard to imagine him in it, but that didn't happen. When casting for the film Jackson didn't really want famous stars playing characters in the film. He said:
"To have a famous, beloved character and a famous star colliding is slightly uncomfortable."
This is just one of those cool "what if" scenarios. Bowie would have been great.