For years, David Bowie was rumored to have auditioned for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. Reports say that he tried out for Elrond, Lord of Rivendell, who was ultimately played by Hugo Weaven. Now, actor Dominic Monaghan tells The Huffington Post that this story is—surprise!—mostly true.

I was at the Hubbard's, which is a pretty notorious casting agency office in London, doing an audition for [The] 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,' 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.

Dominic didn't see which part David auditioned to play, though he has his own theory. "I'm assuming he read for Gandalf," he says. "I can't think of anything else he would've read for."

David had prior experience in film, thanks to his role as the Goblin King in Jim Henson's The Labyrinth. But director Peter wanted to work instead with relative unknowns like Dominic and newcomers such as Orlando Bloom. "These are famous, famous characters, loved for nearly 50 years," Peter said to Entertainment Weekly in 2001. "To have a famous, beloved character and a famous star colliding is slightly uncomfortable."