Sam Heughan and Liv Tyler Auditioned For the Same LotR Role
Liv Tyler's Arwen had a much more active role in the cinematic Lord of the Rings trilogy compared to J.R.R. Tolkien's original novels, becoming a genuine elvish hero who even saved Frodo from the Black Riders.
Tyler herself became a bona fide A-list actor after starring in award-winning films, showing how central to the story Peter Jackson wanted Arwen to be on screen.
On top of the increased role, it turns out that there was almost another element of Arwen's characterization that would have completely changed her story.
Outlander star Sam Heughan said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz that he had auditioned for Tyler's role as the elf warrior early in his career. When he read for the role, there was a chance that the character would be changed into a male.
Heughan didn't give much insight into the potential character other than that he was auditioning to be an elf warrior and the character ended up becoming Arwen. The character was eventually changed back to its original gender but with an increased role.
In the books and the films, Arwen marries Aragorn, future King of Gondor. It's likely that there were originally two characters – one being Arwen with the limited role she had in the source material, and one being whoever Heughan auditioned for – who merged into the character Tyler played.
Heughan is only three years younger than Tyler, turning 19 when Jackson would have been casting the role in 1999. But Tyler had a little more experience and notoriety by that point; she's the daughter of a rockstar and already had starred in 1998's Armageddon.
Heughan got far enough in the audition process to have met writer and director Peter Jackson before ultimately being passed for the role. His career ended up taking another several years to kick off, having roles in TV movies and guest appearances on television shows for the next decade. His big break came in 2014 when he was cast as the lead in the Starz romantic time-traveling show Outlander. The show has garnered some Emmy buzz, and he himself has been nominated for several BAFTAs for his portrayal as Jamie Fraser.
Heughan has had a respectable career, but if he would have gotten a Lord of the Rings role before turning 20, he would have been an overnight star – just like the rest of the Lord of the Rings cast – a decade sooner.