Martin Compston has shared the embarrassing moment he got his hopes up for landing a big role. The Greenock-born actor admitted he thought he nailed the audition for a huge part in the Lord of the Rings franchise.
The 38-year-old, who most recently starred in the BBC adaptation of Andrew O'Hagan's book Mayflies, was sure he would get the part of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit trilogy - but the role ended up going to Martin Freeman.
Retelling the story on his Restless Native podcast, which he hosts alongside pal and new Good Morning Britain presenter Gordon Smart, Compston said: "I did audition for Bilbo Baggins. And I remember coming out and I thought I was in a good place in my career at the time, and I thought 'Yeah man, you never know', and I love Lord of the Rings. I just thought 'this is just the right part'.
"And I was meeting Kevin Bridges for a pint in London, and he was like 'alright mate, what have you been up to?'. I was like 'I can't tell him' - I thought for this thing I can't really talk about I'd auditioned for it.
"And he went 'Go on, just tell me'. And I went 'I was in for Bilbo Baggins'. Then he started talking about the audition. He was like 'I was just in as well'. Just when you come out going - I had a wee thing in my head going - 'oh, I've got the part'. Then you realise everybody's in for it."
This comes after the Scots star revealed his struggles trying to do a Birmingham accent for a Peaky Blinders audition. Despite being coached by Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio, Compston soon realised he wasn't going to get the role after finding out Cillian Murphy, 46, was auditioning.
Speaking on his podcast, he said: “I’m not good at accents, I couldn’t do a Brummie accent right now. Jed Mercurio is a Brummie, so he recorded all my lines for me and it was one of those moments where you’re like, ‘I’ve got a shout’. Then my agent went, ‘Oh, Cillian Murphy is up for that,’ and you just don’t follow it up again ever.”
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