Heughan revealed it all in his new autobiography, Waypoints: My Scottish Journey, which hit stores earlier this week.
In an excerpt published in Entertainment Weekly, Heughan explained that the 007 audition in 2005 came at a time “in my life where I probably wasn’t ready for it, but I wonder what would have happened if I had made it.”
Before Craig was confirmed to play Bond in the 2006 Bond reboot Casino Royale, the competition was fierce. The British actor not only took on Heughan, but also took on Superman star Henry Cavill before emerging victorious.
Ultimately though, Heughan revealed that he missed out on James Bond because he didn’t have a specific character trait.
Heughan was 25 years old and part of a group of 20-something hopefuls, including Henry Cavill, when he auditioned. He said: “I think they were looking into a younger James Bond, which is what I suspect will happen next. It was such a strange experience, but I enjoyed it. I came in with a script and they said, ‘We could get you to read some of this scene,’ but they don’t tell you what it’s about.
He added: “After that, I was taken upstairs and met Barbara Broccoli and Martin Campbell, the director at the time. There was a gold gun on the table, I guess from The Man with the Golden Gun?, and we sat around it once. They had a really big wooden table and they talked a little bit about Bond. It was weird because they didn’t want to talk about Bond, but they did talk about Bond. It’s all very secret service.”
Heughan revealed in his memoirs: “I knew there would be stiff competition, of course, and eventually Daniel Craig made Bond his own. However, when I learned that the role had gone elsewhere, the response I received came down to the fact that that I was not nervous enough by nature”.
At the time, Heughan was a relatively unknown Scottish actor who had only starred in a handful of film and television credits under his belt. Since then, of course, he has become Outlander’s main star, the brutal and seductive Jamie Fraser.
Despite this unexpected response from James Bond’s bosses, Heughan admitted that the exchange didn’t hurt him.
“As a result of that experience,” he confessed. “I learned to naturally show up on that level when I needed to. Even though I was essentially acting outside of the actual audition, it became one more thing I was prepared to do to get a role. I considered it challenging in some ways. ; a performance that I could pretend was really me and that I could turn on and off at will. It wasn’t a matter of becoming a bad boy.”
READ MORE: Next Bond: Dwayne Johnson Backs DC Star But It’s Not Henry Cavill
Just last week, Ladbrokes awarded favorite Regé-Jean Page a staggering 3/1 for becoming the next 007.
He was joined by characters like Henry Cavill, with 7/2, and Tom Hardy, with 8/1.
Heughan was not present among the top nine candidates for the role. Does this mean that his chances of becoming the secret agent have completely diminished?
The James Bond series is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.
#James #Bond #loses #star #Outlander #personality #trait
Source link
