He’s got a People’s Choice award and international fame from starring in Starz series Outlander, but it seems that Sam Heughan’s talents don’t spread to Middle Earth.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast for its 10th anniversary episode, the Scottish actor revealed that he once had a terrible audition for The Hobbit in the role of an Elf.
When told by Happy Sad Confused host Josh Horowitz that he looked like a “Tolkien guy,” Heughan admitted his absence from any of the Lord of the Rings films was not for his lack of trying.
“I did audition for The Hobbit,” Heughan told Horowitz and the podcast live audience at New York comic-con. “I met Peter Jackson and I was terrible and it was to play an Elf,” said Heughan.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for STARZ
Newsweek has emailed Sam Heughan’s representatives for comment.
It’s bad luck, as a role in the Lord of the Rings franchise seems almost like his Heughan’s destiny—if his namesake is anything to go by.
Heughan also told the audience that his parents had named him and his brother after characters in J. R. R. Tolkien’s books. His older brother Cirdan is named after an Elf and he was named after Lord of the Rings character Samwise Gamgee.
His elf audition may not have gone to plan but Heughan might have had more luck auditioning for the role of a dwarf in The Hobbit.
Heughan told the podcast that when he visited Weta Workshop, the prop and special effects company behind the Lord of the Rings, he dressed up as a dwarf—a moment he jokingly described as “life changing.”
“As soon as we put the nose on, I transformed,” said Heughan, adding his dwarf character—who he named Groin—was “very abusive” with a lot of bad language.
Not one to let his ambitions of starring in Lord of the Rings go, last year Heughan told chat show host Kelly Clarkson that he was desperate for a role in the Amazon prequel Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.
“These [being named after a character] were great influences to me growing up, and I still am desperate to be an elf or a dwarf, so if Rings of Power is still casting, I’m available.”
Heughan also revealed that filming of the eighth and final season of Outlander had recently wrapped, with only some re-shoots left to complete.
“We shot our final episode—eight seasons, 101 episodes, 11 years, and I go back to work on Monday. We have to do a bunch of pickups. So, yeah, it’s, it’s been a rollercoaster,” said Heughan.
Heughan is currently promoting part two of the seventh series, which comes out next month.
Also appearing on the special edition Happy Sad Confused episode were actors David Harbour, Zoe Chao, Jack Quaid and Jaimie Alexander.