Indeed. The hair doesn’t bother me, that can be cleaned up. Cavill has the general look but I found him wooden in the screen test, and I don’t think he really improved in that department with age. I’d rather go with someone less traditional but commands the screen. I like that this footage helps put a nail in the idea he was a no brainer for Bond. People throw manure at Brosnan but there’s no doubt he’s a level above. He for sure had the movie star quality that the role deserves.
3 Likes
I wouldn’t even insist on a suit* but at least some unobtrusive simple clothes that don’t detract from your performance would be the minimum. It needn’t look like Bond leisure wear, just something that’s not totally awful and in Russian trafficker taste would be nice. I don’t doubt the Worthington ensemble is from some expensive designer he thought might impress. But it’s entirely misplaced unless you test for some real life anime adaptation.
*Let’s face it, unless you have your personal Lindy Hemming or some emergency tailor from Savile Row fitting you out on the fly you’re never going to look like James Bond on screen.
2 Likes
That Lazenby fella really was much more intelligent than people thought… Getting even Connery´s haircut 
Interestingly, Campbell still favored him.
5 Likes
Apparently so did MGW! BB and Pascal preferred Craig. Never thought it’d be the studio rep with better instincts.
2 Likes
MGW had proposed a Young Bond before, so maybe that’s what he saw in Cavill.
I remember a THR article which quoted Paul Haggis, while writing CR, saying: “Bond´s 28, no gadgets”.
Could explain that they really wanted to have a much younger and inexperienced Bond at first - before with the older looking Craig that concept was abandoned.
1 Like
They were all really bad. But I thought HC took it more seriously than the rest. The others didn’t seem to care if they got the job or not. HC was at least into the process. Likely one reason he was a finalist.
1 Like
This. Exactly why I would go with dudes like (I know I know he’s too old) Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, or Hiddleston. Those guys could pull it off and they’ve also got that little twinkle in their eye that Bond has to have and none of those above who auditioned did.
2 Likes
A couple of thoughts:
If Cavill was runner up to Craig, it most likely was not based on that tape. I’m willing to bet he had also gotten a more “advanced” screen test that was filmed like the one we saw Craig do. He might have come off quite differently in that.
On the issue of whether MGW wanted Cavill - in SOME KIND OF HERO he is quoted as saying “For me, it was pretty clear that Daniel was the frontrunner. We weren’t prepared to give him a draft until it had gone quite a way towards what we thought would be final. And that being the case, we had eighteen months to two years of uncertainty where we were looking for a back-up, and that’s why we did look at a lot of people and tested a few.”
3 Likes
I get that there must have been some uncertainty as to how exactly go forward with their ideas. Fact is, if you want to have a young and inexperienced Bond you’d not necessarily go for a young and inexperienced actor - you’d want one that’s able to depict the range convincingly. And perhaps this is how they rather went with Craig in a - somewhat - unfitting subplot that’s soon enough dropped and forgotten about.
2 Likes
Yeah, as it turned out the “young and inexperienced” idea was completely dropped. Craig showed up not particularly young and the “youthful” qualities of being headstrong, insubordinate and as subtle as a bull in a china shop turned out to be a feature, not a bug. Time made him older, but if those are considered qualities one “matures beyond,” he never did.
3 Likes
There’s probably something to this, I would have to agree. Debbie McWilliams has also been on record as saying that Friend also gave a very good reading for the part before he withdrew himself from consideration. I would venture to guess that she’s probably referring to a different tape than the one that has been presented here.
1 Like
Yeah, I’m sure these are only the first introductory screen tests. Probably the more “advanced” tests for the stronger contenders were the traditional From Russia With Love ones.
1 Like
The reading you do in the room is always very different than one on tape. Its why most actors hate the tape audition, I know i do.
Edit: Sam Mendes actually points out on the Road To Perdition commentary that Daniel Craig is awful at auditions. I really wouldn’t like to be a casting director.
2 Likes
From that THR piece on Tony Roberts:
“After the show one night, Woody walks in to my dressing room with his then-wife, Louise Lasser, and says, ‘You were great. How come you’re such a lousy auditioner?’ I still don’t have a good answer for that. But I got the part in Don’t Drink the Water .”
2 Likes
A couple of musings…
I always think of Chris Eccleston and his thoughts on DC, Chris who is a Bond fanatic and says repeatedly I’d play M for as long as I was working if they asked, he speaks of the visceral charisma of DC on our friends in the north and how everyone women especially responded to DC, he’d never seen an unknown actor have that much presence, including when he worked with Ewan McGregor later on. I’m certain Connery and Moore had that presence also.
Stuart Martin is interesting and is in one of the most quietly successful series of recent years his profile is similar to Brosnans was in 84
5 Likes
I think now a very matured Eccleston, incl. beard, would be a great M.
5 Likes
A Mini-M, with Moneypenny always carrying a stepladder behind him. He’d need one even if Bond was played by Danny DeVito 
1 Like
Rupert Friend was the best for me although not far enough from Pierce Brosnan’s Bond to prob accomplish what they were trying to do.
1 Like
To paraphrase (I.e. totally steal from) a recent edition of Private Eye - needs to be educated at a top school, ex-Navy, known for consorting with international villains and with an eye for the ladies.
Prince Andrew, then.
6 Likes