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I'd love to play Cantona, says Dom
OSCAR nominations are all well and good, but Lord Of The Rings actor, Dominic Monaghan, has other things on his mind.
For, while bookies and movie critics debate how many awards Return Of The King is going win at the Hollywood ceremony later this month, the Stockport-born actor is already thinking about his next role.
Over the past three years, Dominic's face has been plastered across billboards around the country as hobbit Merry Brandybuck. But it seems his real ambition is to play a much different type of legend - Eric Cantona!
"I'd love to play a Man United player in a film one day," he tells United magazine. "If I had to choose one player, I'd have to be Eric Cantona because he's my favourite player of all time.
"He grabbed everybody's attention as soon as he arrived at Old Trafford because he was so different from everyone else.
"Playing Eric in a movie would be fantastic, but you can't put on a Cantona shirt and pretend to be like him unless you have some sort of skill. And I'm not silly enough to think I'd be able to do that!"
Sadly, it seems Dominic's dream role is still a fantasy at this stage. But, he says, he did once come close to playing one of his United icons on screen, when he auditioned for a film based on the Busby Babes, which was later scrapped.
However, while he may not have landed a part as one of his heroes, that hasn't stopped him being a dedicated fan. Not only has he joined the US branch of the Manchester United Supporters Club since moving to LA, he also made it his mission to recruit more fans on the Lord Of The Rings set.
"I would often bring my computer on set to listen to the games over the internet and I'd force Elijah Wood (Frodo) to watch the Ooh, Aah Cantona and Treble videos, or The Premiership, which my dad used to send over," he says.
"All the hobbits had a bit of a Denis Law thing going on with their hairstyles and it was like a throw-back to the seventies at times!"
From Manchester Online | 19 February 2004 | by Helen Tither
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Manchester Online interview