Yes, David Bowie Auditioned for 'Lord of the Rings'

BY Sarah MurphyPublished Jan 28, 2016

Throughout his career, David Bowie took on a number of character-driven roles in his music — from Ziggy Stardust to Aladdin Sane to the Thin White Duke — and he even tried his hand at acting onscreen with roles in Labyrinth, The Man Who Fell to Earth and several other films. But he never made it to Middle Earth.
 
Bowie apparently auditioned for a role in Peter Jackson's blockbuster Lord of the Rings trilogy, though he never appeared in the films. In a new interview with The Huffington Post, Dominic Monaghan (known to most as a hobbit named Merry) recalls seeing Bowie while he was waiting to find out his own future film fate in the Hubbard's casting offices in London.
 
"As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in," he said. "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."
 
Past rumours reveal that Bowie may have been after the role of elf king Elrond, but was turned down by Jackson for being too famous, potentially distracting viewers from the character himself. According to Jackson, "To have a famous, beloved character and a famous star colliding is slightly uncomfortable."
 
We're guessing Bowie could have pulled off a mean elf, wizard or man, and while we'll never see those roles come to fruition, at least we've always got the Goblin King — and a possible Labyrinth sequel.

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