Orlando Bloom played one of the most well-known elves in Lord of the Rings, Legolas. However, he originally auditioned for a significantly smaller role.
Orlando Bloom was still in drama school when the casting for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring took place – the film that would turn out to be a springboard for the aspiring Hollywood star.
As he told Variety in an interview in May 2024, he originally did not audition for the role that later made him famous, but for a supporting role.
Here you can see a trailer for the first Lord of the Rings film:
Bloom thought he was right for another character
“I auditioned for the role of Faramir,” Orlando Bloom said. He originally planned to play the younger brother of Boromir and captain of the Rangers.
He thought that he would fit perfectly the description of the character. However, after the first audition, he received a callback from the production: he should also audition for Legolas.
Then came another call from the production:
“And I got another callback to meet Peter and Fran, who had come to London. And then I waited – I was in drama school. The rest is history.”
Orlando Bloom, source: Variety
As Orlando Bloom also mentioned in the interview, Legolas was one of his favorites in the book. Therefore, he had high expectations of himself to do justice to the character, but also to meet the expectations of the fans:
“The character I knew was very popular in the books and one of my favorite characters in the books when I read them. So I felt that I had the desire to portray the character correctly for the fans of the books at least.”
You can read more about Lord of the Rings here with our colleagues from Moviepilot: Lord of the Rings series releases additional video for season 2 trailer and heats up funeral pyres for character death
In the meantime, some actors have become indispensable in their roles in Lord of the Rings. Just like Sir Ian McKellen, who perfectly fits the role of the powerful wizard Gandalf. However, he was not actually the first choice for the casting, and before him, two other actors almost got the role. You can read more about this here on MeinMMO: James Bond almost became Gandalf – The legendary Ian McKellen was only the 3rd choice
