Charles Dance names the worst moment of his career: “It was painful”
Most actors would kill to be in a ‘James Bond’ movie. To play even a small role in one of the greatest and most historic film franchises of all time is a great honour. Just ask Hugh Dennis, the UK comedian who randomly crops up at the start of No Time to Die. Very occasionally, you get an actor who makes their big screen debut in a ‘Bond’ film. Case in point – Charles Dance.
The Game of Thrones star, who was once talked out of auditioning for 007, can be found in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only, starring Roger Moore. He plays a character called Klaus, who serves as a henchman for mini-boss Locque (Michael Gothard) during the movie’s ski chase sequence. It’s hardly the most auspicious movie debut, but there are much worse places to start.
Being in a ‘Bond’ movie, especially playing a villain, involves a lot of stunt work. Dance found this out first-hand and ended up paying for it. “I just had to fall over,” he recalled to The Telegraph. “I did it and landed badly – I did something to my shoulder. It was painful.”
The future head of House Lannister is far from the only person to have injured themselves on the set of a ‘Bond’ flick. Daniel Craig suffered numerous knocks during his time as the superspy, including an ankle injury that paused production on No Time to Die. Harold Sakata, who played Oddjob in Goldfinger, badly burned himself filming his iconic death scene. In that sense, Dance joins an illustrious club. Alas, what happened next was far less glamorous.
“They gave me painkillers, put my shoulder back in and told me it would be painful,” the British star continued. “That afternoon, I had to ride a motorbike for the film. I had this prescription for painkillers. I get back to the set, go into my small trailer, pour myself some water, then I look at the packet and it’s a suppository. So now I had to get out of this one-piece ski suit and shove this thing up my arse. Then I had to ride a motorbike really badly.”
Inserting a pill into one’s anus while wearing an elaborate onesie might have been enough to put anyone off acting forever. Luckily for us, Dance wasn’t deterred. He translated his appearance in For Your Eyes Only into a raft of other film and TV gigs, including the criminally underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger joint Last Action Hero. He plays a guy with a smiley face instead of a pupil. That’s pretty rad. Perhaps his most interesting post-’Bond’ outing was in Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, in which he played the author responsible for the iconic character. There’s no word on whether he had to put anything up his back passage for this role.
Actors are famous for putting themselves through intense measures to nail a part. While Charles Dance unexpectedly having to take a suppository probably didn’t add much to the wider ‘Bond’ canon, it certainly changes the way you watch him in For Your Eyes Only.
