In 2005, a big question loomed over the future of 007: who would be the new Bond, James Bond? After four-time Bond actor Pierce Brosnan ended his tenure in 2002’s Die Another Day, franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson embarked on a two-year search of more than 200 actors to find the sixth 007. Following turns by Brosnan and predecessors Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton, prospective actors included a too-young and not-fit-enough Henry Cavill of future Superman fame; Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor; a screen-tested Antony Starr; and Daniel Craig, who would be announced as the new James Bond in late 2005.
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Before his starring role in James Cameron’s Avatar in 2009, Sam Worthington auditioned to play the rebooted Bond for Casino Royale director Martin Campbell.On Sydney radio show Fitzy and Wippa, the Australian actor revealed his “awful” attempt at a British accent left him shaken (not stirred).
“I did go for Bond. I went and did the audition with Martin Campbell, who ended up directing Casino Royale,” Worthington said. Donning a tuxedo, Worthington screen-tested a scene from 1963’s From Russia With Love.
“You walk in, there’s the girl in the bed, you charm her. I could get the killer of Bond down,” Worthington said, “I just couldn’t get the charm. I couldn’t charm her. The suit didn’t fit, man.”
Asked if he kept his natural Australian accent or mimicked past Bond actors, Worthington recalled, “I tried to do a British accent. I did say to them I wanted to wear the white tuxedo like Roger Moore. I wanted to bring back kung fu chops, and they looked at me like I was crazy.”
Worthington noted how Bond producers “get every young person” to audition for the role. “Even if you talk to like Sam Neill — Sam Neill, back in the day, went for a Bond. Every actor, I think Mel Gibson went for a Bond … what they do [is], they get every young dude in, and then they whittle it down.”
On whether producers asked him to attempt a British accent, Worthington explained, “I said, ‘If I do an Australian [accent], I’m gonna be the next George Lazenby.’ He only did one [movie, 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service], and I didn’t want to be like that. So I tried British.”
“It was awful,” Worthington recalled. “I sounded like Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins. I remember Martin going, ‘Just do your normal voice, it’s all cool, man.’”
Craig’s tenure as James Bond would span five films over fifteen years, concluding with 2021’s No Time to Die. Producers are now actively seeking the next new Bond and have reportedly met with Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) for the role.
“When you change the actor you have to reimagine the direction the film’s gonna go in. When you hire an actor, you’re hoping you’re going to spend a decade at least with them and make four or five or six films with them,” Broccoli told Empire in 2022. “So you have to think through, ‘What is the trajectory? What is that actor going to bring? How are you going to move the series into another direction?’”
Worthington reprises his role as Jake Sully in Avatar: The Way of Water, now playing in theaters.
