The Story of David Bowie's Lord of the Rings Movie Audition, Told By Series Actor

David Bowie auditioned for a role--possibly Gandalf or Elrond--in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, according to Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry in the acclaimed film series. Monaghan shared his own audition story today with The Huffington Post, which includes the revelation that the late singer/actor was also interested in appearing in Jackson's films.

"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," Monaghan said. "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."

According to Entertainment Weekly, Bowie was interested in playing Elrond, a role that eventually went to Hugo Weaving. But whatever the case, it's exciting to think about Bowie playing a role in the film series, even if it didn't happen. It's kind of like how Nicolas Cage turned down an offer to play Aragorn.

Bowie played the Goblin King in 1986's Labyrinth. The rockstar died earlier this month at the age of 69 from cancer.