In a recent interview with The Huffington Post, Dominic Monaghan told of a chance encounter in the Hubbard’s casting agency reception area with none other than David Bowie.
“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,” He continued, “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.”
Unsurprisingly, some entertainment and news sites are reporting that he might have auditioned for the part of Elrond, Halfelven. This undoubtedly springs from Bowie’s famous role as the Goblin King (pictured) in the 1986 movie, Labyrinth. To this reporter, that almost seems like dots that are too easy to connect. He might also have portrayed a good Celeborn (oops — falling into that Elf stereotype), Denethor, or even Saruman. 
In the end, we know he was turned down, probably due to Peter Jackson’s desire to avoid casting super-stars in major roles. But, oh to have been a fly on the wall the day he auditioned. What say you? What role do you think, or wish, he auditioned for?
