The famous British adventurer who lost the role of James Bond because his hands were too big
Hollywood can be cruel and exacting in its stipulations for lead actors. It’s not just about whether one can play the part well; one also has to match the physical incarnation of a character that the casting director has in mind. Arbitrary, opaque, and often frustrating, the black box of casting decisions remains a source of regret and what-ifs for many stars and would-be actors alike.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes, for instance, was nearly cast as James Bond, yet he lost the part due to a rather subjective value judgement about his potential to convince as a suave lead for the franchise.
The ‘Bond franchise‘ revolves around the adventures of its titular fictional British Secret Service agent, James Bond, or ‘007’, a character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming. The James Bond franchise has, since the mid-century, grown into a highly valuable and successful international entertainment property, with a global gross exceeding $7billion. It is effectively one of the highest-grossing film series of all time.
Fiennes was not your ordinary would-be actor. He was never a devotee of the thespian craft; rather, he was an explorer, writer, and poet who came to be known for his various adventurous exploits and, later, for his writing and political endeavours. Educated at Eton—indeed, his full name is Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, though he prefers ‘Ran’—he became highly well-travelled, both through his time in the Army and later as an explorer. Among his exploits, he led an expedition on a hovercraft up the White Nile in 1969 and later on Norway’s Jostedalsbreen Glacier in 1970.
Despite also being the third baronet of Banbury, it soon became apparent that this was no ordinary ‘posh boy’. It’s therefore perhaps unsurprising that when Bond producer Cubby Broccoli was looking for an actor to replace George Lazenby as James Bond, Fiennes came to mind as a potential option. Despite his lack of acting experience, he certainly had an edge in his real-life alignment with Bond’s daring personality, as well as, one can speculate, strong potential for performing his own stunts.
A call was put out to 400 hopefuls for the top job of fictional spy and professional womaniser. In director Matt Dyas’s feature-length biographical documentary about Fiennes from 2022, Explorer, the protagonist lifted the lid on how he nearly nabbed one of the most coveted roles in franchise history but lost out arbitrarily.
“Got into the last six,” he explained, “Some other bloke got it. Roger… Moore.”
Why exactly Broccoli ultimately overlooked Fiennes for the role has never been confirmed. However, the latter did comment that he was told he looked like “a farmer whose hands are too big and clumsy”, suggesting aesthetic reasons may have contributed to the final casting decision.
On the plus side, Fiennes’ ensuing career certainly proved at least as exciting as any Bond film. Credited as being the ‘World’s Greatest Living Explorer’, he was the first person ever to circumnavigate the world from pole to pole. He has crossed the Antarctic on foot and has even discovered a lost city in Arabia. Over the years, he has also raised millions of pounds for charity.
Fiennes may have missed out on Bond; however, he has arguably shown himself every bit the part, just not on the silver screen. Hardly a bad hand.
