Sean Astin did a great job bringing both humor and gravitas to the role of Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings, but this character was almost played by a very different actor. James Corden recently revealed that he auditioned to play the beloved hobbit in the acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy.
The story about Corden’s audition came up during a recent episode of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast and he admitted that things didn’t go so great.
“Everyone, every single person in London auditioned for Lord of the Rings. Everybody… I auditioned for Samwise…and I was doing it, Josh. I was doing the accent and everything… Then we got called back the next day. And then none of us got called back after that,” he recalled.
Corden was still a relative unknown back in the day, with just a handful of roles under his belt, but his career flourished in the next two decades. His rise to prominence started with a role in the original London production of The History Boys and its movie adaptation, followed by a sitcom Gavin & Stacey.
Corden is now best known as the host of The Late Late Show with James Corden, but he’s expected to exit the show in mid-2023.
