David Bowie didn’t appear in Lord Of The Rings because he was “too busy”, the film’s casting director has revealed.
Earlier this year Dominic Monaghan – who played hobbit Merry Brandybuck in the film franchise – seemingly confirmed rumours that Bowie tried out for the trilogy’s first instalment, 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring.
“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 The Huffington Post. “As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in.”
As for what role Bowie went for, Monaghan 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 [am] lucky enough to know his son [film director Duncan Jones] now, so just seeing him in person was pretty special to me.”
However, casting director Amy Hubbard has now confirmed that Bowie never actually auditioned for the film because he couldn’t commit to the trilogy’s lengthy filming schedule.