‘I risked sinking the franchise’: this British actor turned down the role of James Bond

Along with Wes Anderson and the rest of the Asteroid City cast in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Rupert Friend shared some confidences in an interview. variety and published on May 19. The Homeland actor revealed that he was one of the actors approached to play James Bond in 2006, when Pierce Brosnan had just stepped down four years after Die Another Day.

But, as he explains, he didn’t feel confident at all, too inexperienced. “At the age of 22, after graduating from drama school, I shot three films in a row: Rochester, the last libertine, Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Palfrey at Claremont. They said, “We’d like to offer James Bond, but with a reinvention of the saga. We want him straight out of university.”

The actor met with the franchise’s historic producer, Barbara Broccoli, as well as casting director, Debbie McWilliams. “You’ll do a screen test, and if it goes well, you’ll be cast in three films you haven’t read and whose director you don’t know.” They told him.

“I risked sinking the franchise!”

It’s not easy to start putting pressure on his 22-year-old for such a huge role. “I suddenly said to myself, ‘I think at this point in my life and career, I’m too young, I don’t have the experience, I don’t have the acting talent, and I don’t have it. I don’t have any of the difficulties – emotionally, psychologically, physically – that a great Bond should have. So I politely decline” The actor comments.

However, he does not regret turning down the role: “I’m grateful that I did it. Because at the time, not only could the role have overshadowed me, but I felt that the role was beyond me as an actor or even anybody. I felt like it was going to swallow me up. I stood up and risked sinking the franchise, or at least being the worst Bond .

In the end, the audience will not lose out at all, with the arrival of his fellow Brit Daniel Craig, who slipped flawlessly into a specially tailored suit of Agent 007 in Casino Royale.