“Is it a trick question?”: the actor who blew their James Bond audition with a joke

Posted On October 4, 2024October 4, 2024

Landing one of the most coveted and high-profile roles in cinema can often be a double-edged sword, but for the most part, the six actors to have played James Bond in an official instalment of the long-running franchise have benefitted by association.

007 would never be dislodged as the definitive role of Sean Connery’s career, but the original vintage still enjoyed decades of sustained success. Roger Moore hung around a lot longer than he should, and Pierce Brosnan was a great Bond led down by increasingly shoddy stories, while Daniel Craig continues to spread his wings in a variety of eclectic projects, but it never actively held any of them back.

George Lazenby peaked with his solitary stint under the tux, and Timothy Dalton arguably never reached the heights that were predicted. However, it’s a fairly solid track record in general. Not that flunking an audition is the death knell for a career either, though, with plenty of established names and major stars having either failed to win over the casting directors or turned down the part.

Sam Neill, Mel Gibson, Henry Cavill, Sam Worthington, Hugh Jackman, Liam Neeson, and Dominic West are all part of the latter club, and they did alright themselves. Ironically, Matthew Rhys ended up earning three Golden Globe nominations and a Primetime Emmy win for anchoring one of the 21st century’s best spy stories in The Americans, almost a decade after he bombed when up for Bond.

When Casino Royale was putting out the feelers to find the latest incumbent ahead of Martin Campbell’s reboot, Rhys was one of the many invited to screentest in costume for the producers. He was told to wear a dark suit, read Ian Fleming’s source material in preparation, and perform a scene in front of the assembled Eon Productions throng.

“And they said, ‘What would you do differently with Bond?’ And I just remember going, ‘Ah,’” he admitted to The Telegraph. “I was so not anticipating that question. And then I was like, is it a trick question? Are they waiting for people to go, ‘I wouldn’t do anything; he’s perfect?’ You can’t say, ‘You guys have really screwed this up.’”

Even though it was the first thing that came to mind, Rhys refrained from telling the people considering him for the part that “it’s been a bit one-note for decades, hasn’t it?” or that “we can drop the misogynistic jokes.” Instead, he opted to drop a gag of his own, which went down like a lead balloon.

“I’d give him a limp,” came his unfortunate answer. “I said, ‘Limp?’ Nothing. ‘Eye patch?’ Nothing.” Having thoroughly failed to impress the Eon top brass, Rhys ended up walking away from the Casino Royale audition with his tail between the legs, never to receive the callback he knew he’d never get once he suggested 007 go cycloptic.

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