We all remember the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, which introduced Daniel Craig as the legendary spy. However, did you know that the role was up for grabs for nearly 200 actors, including Superman actor Henry Cavill, and it almost went to someone else? You’re curious, of course, to know who it was – and I’m going to tell you exactly that.
Asteroid City star Rupert Friend tells Variety that the casting directors had approached him to play 007 before Craig got a crack at it. The team was looking to reboot the IP and wanted to play the character “basically straight out of college.”
Although, the Homeland actor “politely declined,” believing he didn’t have the “acting chops” to play the iconic role and was scared that he “might sink the franchise” or be “the worst Bond that ever lived.” Read his complete statement to Variety below:
I was told, “We’d love to talk to you about playing James Bond but rebooting the series. We want to do him basically straight out of college.” And I met Barbara Broccoli and her brother Michael and Debbie McWilliams, the casting director for Bond.
Obviously, I’ve watched them growing up and just love all the actors and all the movies. Basically, they said: you’ll do a screen test, and if it goes well, you’re signed up for three pictures which you won’t read, and you won’t know who the director is. You’re basically handcuffed to it.
And I suddenly was like, “I just feel at this point in my life and career, I’m too young, I don’t have the experience, I don’t have the acting chops, and I don’t have any of the hard knocks — emotionally, psychologically, physically — that a great Bond should have. So I’m going to politely decline. That was probably a bit of an eyebrow raise for them.
To be honest, I’m grateful that I did. Because back then, not only could the part have sort of eclipsed me, I felt like the part was bigger than me as an actor or even as a person. That it would sort of swallow me up, and I might sink the franchise or at least be the worst Bond that ever lived. And that was just not an option because I love the franchise.
Rupert also added in the interview that now he feels like he is ready for the role and contacted his agent recently, a week ago, to see if a license to kill is on the market. As Double-O-7, of course!
Well, I had this revelation last week, so this interview is very prescient. And I wrote to my manager, saying, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. . .” and told them what I sort of told you. My manager remembered coming to stay with my wife and me in our house a couple of years ago and asked me, after maybe one or two bottles of wine too many, what I thought about the prospect of playing the character.
I said back then that I felt daunted by it or that I would somehow not serve it. And last week, I literally decided that I was ready. Now they may or may not be interested, and that’s totally fine, but it’s one of those things where everyone I was working with… Patricia Arquette texted me last week to say, “I love the show; you’re so funny, and why the hell are you not Bond? Talk to your agent about it!”
So, I thought, OK, the universe is sort of saying something here, even if it’s only to say, yes, you weren’t ready, and now you are. It doesn’t matter if you do it or not, but it’s important to listen to the cycles of life and understand the universe is always on time, just sometimes you and I are a bit early or a bit late.
Fleming has developed a series of best-sellers centering on a younger Bond, but Rupert might have lost his opportunity for that age-specific role. While it would be an interesting take on the character, it must be a story about why the spy is the way he is while depicting his earlier adventures.
Do you think a younger James Bond is a good movie idea? What are your thoughts on how Casino Royale would have differed had Rupert Friend accepted the role? Let us know in the comments.
About Casino Royale
Casino Royale is a 2006 spy film, the twenty-first in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel of the same name. Directed by Martin Campbell from a screenplay by Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis, it stars Daniel Craig in his first appearance as Bond.
In the film, Bond is on assignment to bankrupt terrorist financier Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro.
The film stars Daniel Craig as Bond, alongside Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, and Jeffrey Wright. It was followed by four sequels up to 2021’s No Time to Die.
Source: Variety
No Comments on Rupert Friend Confesses Why He Rejected the Role of James Bond