Christopher Lee wanted to play Gandalf, not Saruman, in The Lord of the Rings.

For at least one generation, actor Christopher Lee will always be remembered as Saruman the White in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. (His list of film roles however goes well beyond this and is simply amazing.) Christopher Lee's performance as Saruman was absolutely perfect but a new interview between Peter Jackson and Entertainment Weekly reveals that Lee originally wanted a different role in the film.

It seems as though Christopher Lee had not wanted to play villains any more and really had his sights on playing the wizard Gandalf in the film. Peter Jackson on the other hand had Lee picked out for Saruman from the beginning. Asking about what it was like casting him, Jackson stated;

"“In 1998, Fran and I were casting Lord of the Rings in London, and word came through that Christopher Lee ‘would appreciate the opportunity’ to meet with us! I was beside myself — firstly because he was Christopher Lee, but also because we had heard that he was very reluctant to play any more villains. We hadn’t seen him on-screen for a while but checked out recent photos and realized how perfect for Saruman he would actually be.    

For reasons that now escape me, we were filming our auditions in a creepy old Gothic church in London. He literally loomed out of the shadows and introduced himself to Fran and me. As we chatted, he told us how he’d met Tolkien, and why the book meant so much to him. He re-read The Lord of the Rings every single year, and could freely quote vast chunks. We had a video camera and tripod set up, but just said that we would love him to be in our movie — virtually offering him the role of Saruman right there. However, it was at that exact moment that Fran and I realized in horror that he’d come to talk to us about playing Gandalf!  

A very awkward 30 minutes followed, with Fran and I trying our best to explain to a rather peeved Christopher Lee that we were already talking to Ian McKellen about Gandalf — but what an incredible Saruman he would be!  

Chris wasn’t hearing a bar of it, and eventually commanded us to turn on the video camera so he could audition for Gandalf. After shooting a few takes, he thanked us very graciously before disappearing back into the shadows. 

Eventually we confirmed Ian for Gandalf and officially offered Chris the Saruman role. 

We started shooting, and whenever we discussed Saruman’s scenes with Chris, he would always feel the need to say, “You must understand, Peter — he’s really not an evil man.’ He was carrying some heavy scars of Dracula of his own, and I felt it quite strongly. 

Chris also let Ian McKellen know that he had really been hoping to play Gandalf. At one point during the shoot, Chris said, ‘I’m perfectly happy to be in an ‘Ian McKellen film.” Ian immediately turned to Chris, and with great affection he replied, ‘But not as thrilled as I am — to be in a ‘Christopher Lee movie’!’   

That was the bittersweet reality with Chris — while he regarded his cinematic history with a certain amount of disdain, everyone around him had the opposite opinion. For my part, I’m as happy as hell to have made five Christopher Lee movies."

The casting for Gandalf and Saruman was perfect but after reading this interview you can't help but wonder what it would have been like if Christopher Lee was cast as Gandalf.

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Source: Entertainment Weekly