That time Nick Offerman tried to play Sam Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings movies

It’s difficult to imagine Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman adventuring around Middle Earth as Samwise Gamgee or Gimli the Dwarf in The Lord of the Rings. But recently, the actor let out that he did in fact audition for a role in the classic Peter Jackson movies, and he came very close to getting it!

The Devs star told Buzzfeed all about the time he almost got a crucial role in the groundbreaking adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s beloved fantasy trilogy. “I wrote dogged letters for a couple of years to Peter Jackson, asking him to audition me to play Samwise Gamgee,” he said. However, it seems as if he never got very far in his quest to play Sam. As we now know, the part was given to Sean Astin.

But his attempts didn’t stop there. While filming an episode of Hot Ones — the show where celebrities tell us about themselves while ingesting increasingly spicy hot sauces — he revealed that he was asked to audition for Gimli, no letters to the director required. “I eventually, through the normal channels, made it to where they called me in to put me on tape reading for the role of Gimli the dwarf.”

Despite coming so close, Offerman fell just shy of playing Gimli, who was played by John-Rhys Davies, or “some jerk British guy, a first timer,” as he put it.

It’s unfortunate that he didn’t get a role in the movies — even a small role — considering all the effort he put in. But it just wasn’t to be on this one. He wasn’t the only actor fighting for a role in the movies, after all. It was a pretty hot topic back in the day. Another actor who almost landed a part was Mission: Impossible star Dougray Scott, who was approached about playing Aragorn.

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