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Matthew Goode’s bid to play James Bond was short-lived.
Goode, 47, recently opened up on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about a meeting that may have preceded a James Bond audition. The Dept. Q actor admitted he had some ideas for the famed 007 that didn’t quite sit well with the then-primary producer of the Bond franchise.
“I didn’t audition,” Goode said. “I went in and met Barbara [Broccoli]. I didn’t get to the audition.”
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“But it was quite a funny one because — and she’s gorgeous and just a lovely, lovely person — she was like, ‘So what’s your idea for Bond?” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘My idea for Bond. We’ve gotta take it back to the books, you know? Really, we absolutely have to make this guy an alcoholic, a drug addict. He hates himself, he hates women. He hates a lot of people. He’s in deep pain. He’s brilliant at killing people.’ ”
His vision for 007 was “really dark,” he said, but in hindsight, he thought a little sugarcoating could have helped his case. Ultimately, Goode’s ideas didn’t seem to be in line with Broccoli’s. He said, “I think by the end of the interview, she was like, ‘Mhmm. Next.’ ”
Though Daniel Craig’s Bond adopted many vices, his portrayal of the spy was still less intense than how the character is described in Ian Fleming’s original novels. The source material saw Bond with a heavy drinking problem, a 70-cigarette per day average and an occasional amphetamine habit.
Francois Duhamel/Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
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With Craig stepping away from the 007 character, the question of who will play Bond next looms large. A range of actors have emerged as possible contenders, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Josh O’Connor, Regé-Jean Page, Henry Cavill, Joe Alwyn, Paul Mescal, Richard Madden, Dev Patel, Idris Elba and Pierce Brosnan.
