The actor talked out of playing James Bond by their agent: “It will kill your career stone dead”
While some actors have always dreamed of playing James Bond, countless names have unsuccessfully thrown their hat into the ring, and many have turned it down; it’s unusual for someone’s representatives to tell them it’s a bad idea to even contemplate suiting up as the suave secret agent.
For one thing, they’re leaving an awful lot of money on the table. 007 is unquestionably one of cinema’s most iconic characters, and no matter how good or bad the current incumbent fares in the role, one thing that can’t be denied is that they’ll be very well compensated for their efforts. Since an agent takes a cut of those earnings, it’s a bit like shooting yourself in the foot.
Of course, it’s a cliché to suggest that an actor’s team is merely a cabal of money-hungry mercenaries who’ll push their client into a terrible role based solely on the promise of untold riches, and sometimes they do have the performer’s best interests at heart, even when it’s being talked out of Bond.
Had things gone the other way, it would have been a serendipitous full-circle moment, since Charles Dance made his feature debut by playing the minor role of Claus in For Your Eyes Only. Admittedly, it might have been jarring for someone who’d appeared in a Bond flick already to be recast as Bond, but Eon was throwing everything at the wall when it came to replacing Roger Moore.
He’d creaked his way through at least one movie too many, and the search for fresh blood spanned the globe. Some of the contenders included Pierce Brosnan, Mel Gibson, Christopher Lambert, and an especially reluctant Sam Neill, but Dance didn’t even bother going that far, although he was keen to clarify that he hadn’t rejected the part outright.
“No, of course I didn’t turn down James Bond!” he told The Guardian. “What happened was, my agent called and said, ‘I urge you not to do it. Just think how you’ll feel if you don’t get it. It will kill your career stone dead’. She was probably right. If I’d got it, I would have probably fucked it up.”
Surely there was no harm in trying? When The Living Daylights first entered development in 1985, Dance was in his late 30s and largely unknown to the general cinemagoing audience, with most of his credits having been amassed on television, while he had more than a decade of experience on the stage under his belt.
On the other hand, he doesn’t seem like James Bond material. Maybe that’s because he’s flirted precariously with typecasting for the last four decades, but the actor’s sharp features and piercing eyes have become more synonymous with villainy than world-saving heroism, nor was he conventionally handsome like Sean Connery, George Lazenby, and Moore, or their successors, for that matter.
His agent was simply looking out for his best interests, even if it cost him the chance to at least audition for 007, whether he bombed in the room or not.
