It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
There's one: I remember Joan Collins being offered the role of Jill Masterson in Goldfinger, she later regretted turning down that role.
Anyway, Catherine Deneuve was for me a sure ball for the role of Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me, and for sure, she could've done it better than Barbara Bach (given she's a real and experienced actress) it's interesting how she could've done that role, despite of me not being a fan of Anya (the character) due to the character's incompetence, but Bach's performance further dropped the character many notches for me. If Cubby just considered her request, Deneuve wanted the role so badly that she offered the producers to reduce her salary, but Cubby still rejected her.
Seriously? That's crazy. If the 'sex and violence' in the Bonds put him off, one wonders how many other roles he turned down.
Lupito Nyong'o was in contention for presumably Lashanna Lynch's role, I think offers were made but it didn't work out.
Polish actor Tomasz Kot was in contention for the villain role when Danny Boyle was headlining the film, but EoN and the studio wanted a bigger name. It was probably part of the reason they and Boyle parted ways, amongst others.
Of course David Bowie was original choice for Max Zorin in AVTAK, they made the right choice with Walken though!
I think I recall reading somewhere that Jean Reno (Leon) was first considered for Renard in TWINE?
I think it was Drax he was considered for, but French production quotas demanded a native actor be cast.
Yes, as well as a young Javier Bardem. Both turned it down, but I don’t think it’s known exactly why.
The Bond casting for DN is most interesting to me in terms of who they considered. You get actors like Trevor Howard (who was a bit older and more quintessentially English) alongside Stanley Baker (younger, a bit more rugged, and overall more in the Connery mould). I know the latter turned it down outright, but I don’t know about Howard or how seriously he was considered. But it does show where the first film version of the character could have gone.
Yes, and he then went on to play a guest star killer in four Columbo episodes, the most anyone appeared in as the killer. Though perhaps he felt secret agents should use only their wits and guile to defeat villains and not kill or bed women? I'm not sure.
Trevor Howard would have played it like Dalton. Great actor Howard was. I've always enjoyed him.
I think Mason was also considered for Bond in Dr.No.
"An American can't play James Bond. It just can't be done."
Respect.
James Mason was originally considered for the role of Hugo Drax in Moonraker but I believe they had to cast a French actor as it was a Anglo-French co-production.
Yeah. Mason would have been good too.
I can imagine it would have been very different to what we got with Connery. I do think that without that element of wry humour that Young and Connery brought the character wouldn’t quite have worked onscreen (even though DN isn’t necessarily my favourite take on Bond).
And don't forget Clint Eastwood!! 😉
He would have at least handled the gunplay and one liners!!🤪
True. That extra something. Something as little as Connery not putting his cigarette in his mouth completely as he talks.
Yes, Mason would've been perfect for the role of a Bond villain. It's a shame it never happened. He was great as the villain in the proto-Bond film North by Northwest (1959). He had such a great voice and elegant presence.
Yeah. I really enjoy his voice and like you say "elegance" too.
To be honest, when it comes to Bond Actors, I don't see any of those considered alternatives would've worked, although I could possibly see Ian Ogilvy in early 80s being Bond (considering that Moore was too old to play the role) and he had shown charm and action when he replaced Moore as Simon Templar in The Saint (1970s), but then I'm not sure we could've gotten Dalton, unless he quit the role in 1986.
The most interesting in this casting alternatives/what ifs were the Bond Girl roles and the villains, yes, I think Mason would've been a great villain (his looks alone could intimidate and a great actor), the same for Jan Werich as Blofeld in YOLT, or Teodor Bikel as Goldfinger (more closer to the book version than Gert Frobe was, although I still liked Frobe, he's iconic and sold the role really well), and in Bond Girls, it's a shame Raquel Welch never got to be a Bond Girl too.
For YOLT, Czech actor Jan Werich was approached, but the producers thought he looked too much like Santa Claus to play the ruthless head of an international criminal cartel.
Thought of this too, but neither was Pleasance came off as intimidating to me, Jan Werich looked more like an evil mogul in a realistic way, unlike Pleasance who had a mild face.
I believe it was director Lewis Gilbert who made the "Santa Claus" comment. And Werich fell ill before shooting and Donald Pleasance was a late replacement!
Max von Sydow was also a great actor, but made a pretty dull Blofeld in NSNA. It may well have been a similar issue with Werich - there's just something lacking, perhaps a bit too much subtlety. Sometimes an actor is better off going bigger to play a Bond villain.
That's another one I was thinking of. Apparently Cubby liked that he had two different coloured eyes.