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That's not what I'm saying though. Or implying. I'm saying bringing the photos as an argument in favour of one actor to play Bond is non sequitur. A lot of actors look good and look good in a tux. It's like bringing up the Clive Owen BMW advert: it's pretty pointless.
Funny that you bring up the BMW spots; the amount of talent behind the early ones done with Owen was insane. This was my favorite; the chase sequences put what was done for QoS to shame. I also think there was a window of time where Owen could have been an interesting Bond.
Personally I never saw Clive Owen as Bond, regardless of the BMW adverts. They look good, but that's it.
I think Owen plays better the British everyman than any larger than life hero. Like you I think he lacks presence.
He did not improve as an actor.
I've heard by all accounts that the Sam Spade movie was terrible.
Clive Owen played a British spy (Agent 006) in the 2006 reboot The Pink Panther so I don't get why he wouldn't have been seriously interested in playing Bond. The idea he was never considered sounds highly unlikely.
The part about not wanting to play Bond sounds disingenuous given he was happy to play 006 in Pink Panther. I accept it was an uncredited cameo but it was a Bond type role. It's possible he wasn't comfortable committing to Bond for a long time or maybe Barbara Broccoli always preferred Craig over Owen.
By the way, it's on Hulu right now. I would recommend it. O'Connor plays a grave robber that steals from Etruscan tombs. Rohrwacher is probably my favorite arthouse director at the moment. I love her style.
Anyways, there's something about him. I know it's a cliche, but he's got that "it factor." He's effortlessly cool (unlike ATJ who always seems to be trying very hard). He's got something I just don't see in the other candidates. Though he might be getting too famous soon. Besides Challengers (which I haven't seen yet), he's going to be starring in Spielberg's next film, the next Knives Out film, another Guadagnino film with Léa Seydoux, Kelly Reichardt's next film, and in a WWI movie with Paul Mescal.
But still, I think they need to find someone that's on the verge of becoming a big movie star and scoop him up right before he gets too famous. (As opposed to an actor that's been languishing in TV-actor-land for years. I'm looking at you, Aidan Turner. It's obvious those guys don't have that big screen presence, or else they would have done it by now).
For anyone wondering he's 6'1 and 34 years old.
He’s very good in La Chimera. Interesting actor, can play geeky, can play romantic lead… can play action hero? Probably. After watching La Chimera a few months ago I’ve moved from thinking he’s a bit too nerdy-looking to thinking he’s got enough acting muscle to maybe make Bond work. He’s an interesting candidate.
@HarmonyRockets I did a quick search of the site and I think you are the first one to say he might make a good candidate for the role. You’ve got bragging rights if he turns out to be our new guy.
Sorry, my bad. Yes Monsieur Spade was a tv series and fans of Hammet hated it.
Do we have any evidence that he was ever considered by EON? We pretty know now who else auditioned for the role.
He was offered it but turned it down, presumably for CR (and by ‘offered the part’ it means offer to audition, and it’s worth saying at one point they had a list of 200 potentials). To be fair it genuinely seems he didn’t want to be tied to Bond.
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/owen-turned-down-007-7276156.html
He was truly awful in The Pink Panther. If it was an audition it was a bad one.
He was indeed very good in Monsieur Spade, where the hangdog looks fitted the character. The issue with that show was the writing. The Marlowe movie with Liam Neeson, the one that was just called Marlowe (and based on a continuation novel from another writer) was from all reports an unmitigated disaster.
But Monsieur Spade was basically some spy story taking place in rural France in the early 60s, with an American retired private investigator who gets caught in some events, over the course of several weeks. The guy simply happens to be an aging Sam Spade, who has some good one-liners, but apart from a few artificial connections to The Maltese Falcon, it bears no relevance to the plot, and it could have been a generic private dick instead.
Dashiell Hammett's writing is very distinctive, but it's been replicated on the screen quite successfully, including Rian Johnson's Brick, which was basically The Maltese Falcon but with highschool cliques. In Monsieur Spade, few things were actually Hammett-esque. And the final episode of Monsieur Spade is baffling. Instead of Spade tying the loose ends and explaining the plot to the suspects, we get instead a new character to wrap everything. The whole episode is a series of "Wait… What?!"
I’m glad you enjoyed his performance, @HildebrandRarity … I just found him excruciatingly boring. He mumbles terribly and his American accent was atrocious, to my ears. He just seems flat to me. I think I watched three episodes before turning it off, and although the story was quite generic (but in a very nice setting), to me, that was the least of its problems. The bullseye is on the back of Owen. Just a terribly thin actor with little presence, in my opinion. It’s frustrating because I wanted to like him, and the show. But, as in most of his work, he just disappoints (does the guy even want to be an actor? He seems to put zero energy/investment into his roles and they all blend into one, morose and boring figure).
Don't think he would have been good as Bond and I don't think he would have made the cut, nevertheless I'm surprised that he didn't even want to audition.
Maybe Owen was a subscriber to the same "school of thought". It should also be said that Craig's tenure has considerably raised the caliber of the talents attracted to the franchise. Or it was simply a money thing.
I obviously don't mind a good a** shot--see 2:00 below--but I did not need to see Owen's flabby a** in this show.
Also, if--if--John Hamm could do a British accent, he would have been a much better American choice for Bond than John Gavin or James Brolin. For one, the man can act.
Ahaha that’s very true— me neither @echo !!!!!!
(But Jake Gylenhaal’s in Presumed Innocent? Pretty full moon he’s carrying, 😂)
I didn't know Dominic West was considered by EON, enough to audition. It's one of the candidates alongside James Purefoy, which I would have liked to see, back in the days. Sounds a bit unlikely that he started discussing bonus and salary before even auditioning.
I was a big fan of James Purefoy way back in the day. I think he maybe even have been my leading candidate that I wanted to play Bond. Man, I’m very happy with the guy we got. I just can’t see any of the other names being able to bring anything genuinely fresh to the role.
It should be quite obvious that EON won't hire a Daniel Craig Jr. (or the splitting image of Roger Moore or a Sean Connery lookalike) to play Bond for the next fifteen years. This was a phase of the franchise, and it's now done. They want someone who can fit in the legacy of previous Bond actors, but who can also help make the next years of the franchise distinctive enough, otherwise it will go stale.
That was an issue with Pierce Brosnan. Goldeneye showed a lot of potential, but the next scripts and Brosnan's performances had his Bond to be too much of a Connery-Moore composite.
Very nicely said @HildebrandRarity … and who would want a Connery 2.0, or a Moore or Dalton or Craig or Brosnan or Lazenby 2.0.
They’d never be as exciting as the original. And as you point out: we’ve had those. It’s a part of this great history.
The new guy has to fit into this history, but move us forward at the same time (it’s a tricky gig).
Thanks for the post. Very nice 👍🏻!!
Eon needs someone who is unafraid to step into Craig's shoes both in terms of acting and the media...and that might lead them to a more seasoned actor than usual.
We're in a very different, instant-gratification, social media world than Craig, Brosnan, or Dalton ever faced.