The iconic role Callum Turner said he would “have a riot” playing: “I would love to”
Any young British actor with a modicum of talent will almost inevitably find themselves drawn into the James Bond conversation at one time or another, as Callum Turner has recently discovered.
Even though the only things that tie him to one of cinema’s most iconic and coveted roles are unconfirmed speculation and bookmakers’ odds, that’s more than enough to establish him as the current front-runner to be named Denis Villeneuve’s 007.
Whether or not he ends up landing the part remains unknown, and you can bet that Villeneuve, along with Amazon MGM Studios, will do their best to keep it under wraps until an official announcement is made, which will hopefully be less cheesy than the time Daniel Craig turned up in a speedboat.
Since he’s in his mid-30s, well-known without being a household name, an actor with a stellar array of credits under his belt, and he’s proven himself to be one of the most talented up-and-coming British stars of his generation, there was no chance that Turner would be able to escape the harsh glare of Bond.
As talented as he is, you could still make the argument that he remains on the hunt for a genuine breakthrough role. Turner has given good performances in a number of film and television projects, but there arguably isn’t a solitary role that instantly comes to mind whenever his name pops into your head.
Obviously, Bond would take care of that, and while he’s so far refused to even acknowledge the ongoing scuttlebutt in a public forum, there’s another formidable part that he’d love to take a crack at, one that’s previously been inhabited by Marlon Brando, Peter Gallagher, Ewan McGregor, Patrick Wilson, and Adrian Lester, to name a few.
“Sky Masterson is a part I would love to play,” he told The Playlist, outing Guys and Dolls‘ smooth-talking gambler as a dream role. “That kind of thing would be a lot of fun. I’m not a great singer per se, but that would be something I’d love to lean into and have a riot with.”
Turner hasn’t done a great deal of theatre, and it would be a bold move for a relative novice to jump from treading the boards into tackling one of the most iconic characters in musical theatre in one of its most popular and enduring productions. You can’t build a proper career without taking a risk or two, though, so who’s to say he couldn’t pull it off?
He may or may not be the next James Bond, and that’s a question that won’t be answered for a while yet, but if anyone’s planning another revival of Guys and Dolls and they need a Sky Masterson, then they should give Turner a call, because he’s not going to turn it down.
