Screenhead

Night Talk host Mike Schneider and Roger Moore talked about landing the role of James Bond, “To the best of my knowledge I was on Ian Fleming’s wish list according to the publicity department after I had started it! Ian Fleming, departed this mortal coil 7 years before I took over Bond, I understand that he really wanted David Niven or Cary Grant, in fact I think at the beginning it was probably offered to Cary Grant.” 

He talked about distinguishing himself from Sean Connery’s Bond, “Guy [Hamilton] wanted to make sure I didn’t have any of the things that were associated with Sean such as a martini shaken not stirred…..which I never uttered, I’ve drunk them! The one thing we couldn’t get away from, I had to say my name was Bond.” 

“I didn’t even have a set of nerves about it until about an hour before the first press screening in London and I was on my way in my house in Denham to the screening and I suddenly thought ’supposing they don’t like it’ and I have these terrible butterflies, then in five minutes it passed and I thought ‘Well, its like having a baby, you are on the way to the delivery room, the baby is going to come out.’” 

He talked about how A View to a Kill  became his last Bond film, “We were discussing whether I would (do A View to Kill) …..I was beginning to feel I shouldn’t…..when the leading lady starts looking younger than your granddaughter then you think ‘uh erm’ it’s a bit like Gary Copper and Love in the Afternoon.” 

He talks about Connery’s feud with the Bond franchise, “I think his resentment stemmed from the fact that he was not financially rewarded.  He felt enough for what his contribution was to the series, and it went on and of course eventually it became, I believe very viable, his financial rewards…and in fact the last film he gave his money to a Scottish society.”

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