JAMES Bond can be a killer both on and off screen for the actor who has to play him.
I’ve interviewed all six men who have played 007 over the years and it took a toll on them all.
So, after The Sun revealed that Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been formally offered the job as the new James Bond, what will await the man who accepts the ultimate mission?
The sheer excitement of being chosen for a role known throughout the world can be quickly lost in the reality of the part.
Sean Connery, who became the first Bond with Dr No in 1962, quit after six films because he thought he had been typecast – and had not been paid enough.
George Lazenby, a model turned actor, couldn’t handle the fame, was dropped after just one film and quickly faded in to obscurity.
Sir Roger Moore, all charm and grace, carried on for too long and lost some of his pride in the process. He was 57 and heavy in make-up when he filmed A View to a Kill, the last of his seven Bonds.
Timothy Dalton, a superb theatre actor, was horrified when faced with the sheer pantomime of publicity and world tours to promote his two films.
Pierce Brosnan, a genuinely nice guy, took to the job manfully but was dumped cruelly in the end after four films when he was expecting a fifth.
Daniel Craig famously announced after his fourth film that he would sooner slash his wrists than play Bond again – and then eventually did one last time.
All of them had to confront a stark reality, which quickly robs them of control. James Bond is far bigger than their acting abilities, careers and image.
He’s the man with the golden gun whose world is never enough and no-one does it better. Can they live up to it?
Let’s start with the scripts. I’ve seen plenty and they change regularly, both before the first day’s filming and during it.
The biggest changes came during the making of Tomorrow Never Dies, the second Pierce Brosnan film, in 1997. Less than one tenth of the original script remained.
Then there’s the haircuts to fit the clean-cut Bond image. Connery, already losing his hair when he first became Bond at 32, had to wear an additional hairpiece.
Brosnan’s hair was cut and reshaped to play 007 in his first film, GoldenEye, in 1995 after discussions and hair designs which lasted for weeks.
There’s also the clothes. Producer Barbara Broccoli had to buy Timothy Dalton – who always dressed casually – a new suit on his way to the Press launch in 1986.
If a designer is signed to the film, the clothes become compulsory. Daniel Craig, like Dalton, was never particularly a suit man – and it showed. They always looked too small and tight.
Then there’s the locations, which can be a problem. A decision was taken to move Dalton’s second film, Licence to Kill, to Mexico to keep down costs. It didn’t work and added to stress.
Brosnan’s first film finally went ahead after producers were locked in six years of legal battles over the Bond franchaise.
Barbara has ruled out it being “Bond, Jane Bond” because she insists that writer Ian Fleming’s spy was a man.
The next 007
Barbara has ruled out it being “Bond, Jane Bond” because she insists that writer Ian Fleming’s spy was a man.
But she said the undercover MI6 operative could be from any ethnic background.
Idris Elba was long tipped to take over from Daniel Craig, but at the age of 51 is likely to be too old because the producer said they want an actor aged under 40.
Last month, we exclusively reveals that Eon had formally offered the role to Kick-Ass star Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Whether the 33-year-old has accepted the mission has not been confirmed.
In that time, they had lost the favoured location of Pinewood Studios and the famous 007 Stage. It had already been pre-booked by other films.
A former Rolls Royce factory in Leavesden, near Watford, had to be rented instead and converted at great expense to a studio, with mounting costs and problems.
The same location became home for all Harry Potter films from 2000.
Lonely business
It can be a lonely business, too, on location. If the actor playing Bond is ill, injured or having an off day, there’s no escape.
George Lazenby seemed particularly isolated. He felt that he had not been given enough respect. In turn, producer Cubby Broccoli was unhappy that he hadn’t respected Bond enough.
But the toughest task often comes when the film is finished. After all the stunts (Roger Moore would wisely retire to his dressing room to avoid the action), the injuries, the illnesses, rewrites and locations, there is the world tour to publicise it.
Each Bond actor has to remain smartly groomed and attend premieres in a succession of major cities, with jet-lag and exhaustion for company.
There are non-stop interviews to foreign television channels and newspapers and they must always speak highly of the film.
Timothy Dalton, in particular, disliked the process. He would often answer personal questions through gritted teeth and object to all reference to ‘Bond girls.’
‘Curse’ of Bond
And beyond that?
Sean Connery once described Bond to me as being “like a curse.” Even Roger Moore, always supportive to Bond and the film-makers, told me: “It’s almost impossible to move on.”
Pierce Brosnan, who had done so much to revive Bond, never quite got over being dumped. His agent telephoned to warn him that negotiations for a fifth movie had stopped.
“I was utterly shocked and kicked to the curb the way it went down,” he admitted, some years later. “There was a whole s*** load of anger.”
Despite that anger, the days of vodka martinis, shaken not stirred, and the one single line of introduction, ‘Bond …James Bond’, are there forever.
Once Bond, always a Bond.
Garth Pearce, described in Sean Connery’s biography as “the only journalist the Connerys trust,” wrote The Making of GoldenEye and The Making of Tomorrow Never Dies (both Boxtree publishers).