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Charles Dance was the
definitive on-screen Ian Fleming, but how close did he come to portraying
007? This is how he answered that question to 007 MAGAZINE back in 2013…
“Well, my agent rang me one sunny day one summer a long time ago and said:
“Oh, it’s happened darling! They want you to test for James Bond!... I
urge you not to do it!” I rather stupidly took her advice! She said:
“You’ll be terribly typecast, and you might not get it”. I said: “But I
might! [get it!]” To be honest, I don’t think I would have been right [for
the role] to be terribly honest with you, although I could be wrong about
that. There was a kind of fallow period [for the series], which was
nothing to do with who was playing James Bond. I just think Cubby let the
whole thing settle too much, rather than kick it up the arse which is what
they’ve done now. I think they now have the best Bond in Daniel Craig, I
really do, and I think they’ve pushed it up to great heights. Because of
the work we did on Goldeneye, I really believed that the Bond books
were period pieces and I would have liked Cubby or Barbara to have
produced a couple of films that were period pieces. All those elements [of
Fleming], like the near misogyny, and male attitudes towards women were
prevalent in Fleming’s time, but by the late 60s, early 70s, London was
swinging! It had become a much more liberated place, so there was
something a bit creaky about the Bond films taking those kinds of
attitudes and setting them in the period of flared trousers and wide
lapels and all of that! They seemed to lose their way. So apart from my
well-meaning agent’s advice at the time, I also thought the Bond films had
rather lost their way somewhat and I was hoping for better things... But
if somebody had seen this film [Goldeneye] that Don made and had
then said to me: “That’s what we want our James Bond to be like!” Well,
then I’d have probably gone for it like a shot! But there’s no way I would
have been allowed to play it like that!” |
