{"id":8726,"date":"2024-04-18T17:00:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=8726"},"modified":"2024-04-18T17:00:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T14:00:43","slug":"the-ideal-james-bond-is-an-actor-on-the-cusp-of-superstardom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=8726","title":{"rendered":"The ideal James Bond is an actor on the cusp of superstardom"},"content":{"rendered":"
As film history shows says James Chapman<\/p>\n
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More people have walked on the Moon than have played James Bond, so it\u2019s no wonder that the suave secret agent with a licence to kill is one of the most coveted roles in cinema. The casting of a new 007 always grabs the public imagination \u2013 even now, when it\u2019s still only a rumour that British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been offered the part. \nThere have been false rumours in the past. I still remember a non-story that Australian model Finlay Light had been cast as the new Bond in 1986. \nEven before social media, the casting of James Bond was always a subject of public intrigue. Before Sean Connery was cast in Dr No (1962), the Daily Express ran a competition to find the public\u2019s choice for the \u201cideal\u201d Bond. The winner was model Peter Anthony, who won ahead of several other contenders, including stuntman Bob Simmons. \nThe often-told story that Cary Grant was \u201coffered\u201d the part by the producer Albert \u2018Cubby\u2019 Broccoli should be taken with a large dose of salt. Grant\u2019s picture fee at the time was over four times Dr No\u2019s total cast budget of \u00a325,000.<\/p>\nSeanConnery in Dr No<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Two myths have accumulated around Connery\u2019s casting over the years. One is that he was an unknown when he was cast. In fact, Connery was already a well-established television actor and had meaty supporting roles in films such as Another Time, Another Place (1958) and The Frightened City (1961) before he got the call. \nBroccoli stated it was Connery\u2019s role in Disney\u2019s whimsical fantasy Darby O\u2019Gill and the Little People (1959) that put the actor on his radar. \nThe other myth is that Bond\u2019s creator Ian Fleming disapproved of Connery, considering him too rough and ready to play the suave secret agent. However, as revealed in Fergus Fleming\u2019s collection of his uncle\u2019s letters, The Man With the Golden Typewriter (2015), Fleming met \u2013 and approved of \u2013 Connery. \nThe writer told his confidante, Blanche Blackwell, that \u201cthe man they have chosen for Bond, Sean Connery, is a real charmer \u2013 fairly unknown but a good actor with the right looks and physique\u201d. \nBond was the box office phenomenon of the 1960s, and when Connery decided it was time to step back after five films, finding a replacement was a drawn-out process. Australian model George Lazenby, a genuine unknown whose only acting experience had been in television commercials for Fry\u2019s chocolate, won the part on account of his ability to stage convincing fight scenes. \nOn Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service (1969) is the closest of the adaptations to Fleming\u2019s book, but it didn\u2019t perform as well as previous Bonds at the box office. Lazenby carried the can for its perceived failure: he was destined to be the one-time Bond. \nAmerican actor John Gavin, best known for playing Janet Leigh\u2019s boyfriend in Psycho (1960), was signed for Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Gavin had the right sort of looks and physique for the part, and would have played Bond as British. \nHowever, United Artists were determined to get Connery back, and made him an offer he couldn\u2019t refuse: 12.5 per cent of the distributor\u2019s net receipts with an up-front cash advance of $1,250,000 and an agreement to produce two films of the actor\u2019s choice. No wonder Connery seems to be enjoying himself so much in Diamonds Are Forever. \nThe casting of Live And Let Die (1973) proved controversial. United Artists wanted a household name star and its archive confirms that Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman were approached \u2013 but neither were interested. \nIn the end it came down to a choice between Burt Reynolds or Roger Moore. Saltzman reportedly favoured the former but Broccoli \u201cviolently opposed\u201d. Moore emerged as the compromise choice as he was the only actor on whom they could agree. \nMoore was the first established star to be cast as Bond \u2013 albeit his stardom was on the small screen, as the dashing gentleman hero of The Saint (1962) and The Persuaders! (1971). He was also the oldest Bond at the point of casting. \nMoore\u2019s successor was another television actor, the Irish-born Pierce Brosnan, star of Remington Steele (1982). But when the network refused to release Brosnan from his contract, Timothy Dalton was a late replacement for The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989). Brosnan eventually got the role that he thought had eluded him nine years later in GoldenEye (1995). In that sense he was the longest \u201cBond-in-waiting\u201d. \nBrosnan had been the bookies\u2019 odds-on favourite. In contrast his successor, Daniel Craig, whose biggest role had been in the British gangster film Layer Cake (2004), was a surprise choice. His casting prompted something of a backlash from fans \u2013 that he was too short, too \u201cugly\u201d and too blonde for Bond.<\/p>\nAaron Taylor Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
There was even an online campaign, \u2018Craig Not Bond\u2019. However, the success of Casino Royale (2006), Skyfall (2012) and three other blockbusters silenced the critics. Craig, one of the few Bonds to leave the series at the time of his choosing, retired from Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service with the five biggest-grossing Bond films in the series\u2019 history. \nSo, Lazenby and Moore excepted, Bond producers have usually cast an actor on the cusp of stardom. Aaron Taylor-Johnson \u2013 if the rumours turn out to be true \u2013 would fit that pattern. He\u2019s not an unknown, but he\u2019s not quite a superstar. And at 33 he\u2019d also be the youngest Bond since Lazenby, not an insignificant consideration given that the producers will want to sign the new Bond for at least three films.<\/p>\n
James Chapman is Professor of Film Studies, University of Leicester. This article is republished from The\u00a0Conversation under a Creative Commons licence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fact: More people have walked on the Moon than have played James Bond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,3038,5936,5057,209,461,1766,1221,1512,6760,7000,3497,705,5697,426,3,4267,3761,6626,988,2164,7001,704,5990,250,3330,658,6999,1394,2952,897,3331,4593,1354,3121,4441,817,6305],"class_list":["post-8726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-agreement","tag-article","tag-artists","tag-box","tag-british","tag-budget","tag-campaign","tag-cash","tag-casino","tag-casting","tag-chocolate","tag-cinema","tag-collection","tag-competition","tag-cyprus","tag-diamonds","tag-disney","tag-fans","tag-fight","tag-film","tag-film-history","tag-films","tag-gentleman","tag-google","tag-google-news","tag-history","tag-james-bond","tag-man","tag-media","tag-moon","tag-news","tag-office","tag-release","tag-salt","tag-service","tag-social-media","tag-who"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n
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