David Bowie didn’t really star in many films and the ones he did make have gone on to be cult classics. But he might have starred in a franchise, since he auditioned for a part in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies.
While promoting his new reality show Wild Things, Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry, told The Huffington Post that he saw Bowie sign up for an audition at a casting agency in London.
“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,” Monaghan said.
He wasn’t sure if that was really the part Bowie wanted, but he he just assumes that Gandalf is the only part Bowie could play.
“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,” Monaghan said.
It has long been rumored that Bowie was interested in playing Elrond, the role that Hugo Weaving played in the films, notes The Hollywood Reporter. However, Jackson made a point to not cast major stars in the trilogy, since the characters are already so well-known.