James Bond•O•Rama.dk got an exclusive one-on-one interview with George Lazenby, when the 76-year old former 007 star visited Oslo in Norway on Thursday 1 September 2016.
In most of his interviews and public appearances, George Lazenby happily reels off the same 10-15 anecdotes about his brief tenure as James Bond 007. The idea behind this conversation was to take a Random Roles-style approach and dig deeper into his filmography, which after all counts 60 credited film and TV roles and spans almost half a century from 1969 to today.
Bond•O•Rama (Brian Iskov): ”On Her Majesty's Secret Service” is my favorite James Bond film. George Lazenby: Well, you have good taste. Bond•O•Rama: But you have 60 other credits in your filmography that people rarely talk about. George Lazenby: Oh yeah. They never talk about 'em. Bond•O•Rama: So I thought that's what we're gonna do. George Lazenby: Oh, if I remember them.
The short time frame – 13 minutes – allotted to our one-on-one with George Lazenby obviously curbed the level of detail in both questions and answers. As it is, Lazenby tends to go off on tangents (more often than not about his manliness and/or sexual prowess), which is why some of his comments only bear a tenuous relation to the question or the film referred to.
A few extra insights have been added from the Q&A that George Lazenby did prior to the screening of ”On Her Majesty's Secret Service” in the Vika cinema later that same evening.
P.S.: George Lazenby's memoirs have been in the offing for quite some time now, but there is still no publishing date as such. At his press conference in Oslo, Lazenby explained that he had hired an American ghost writer for the job, but that the writer had difficulty capturing Lazenby's particular brand of Australian humor.
On the other hand, a documentary on George Lazenby's life and career, ”This Never Happened to the Other Fella”, is currently in post-production. Directed by Andrew Lumley, the show will air as part of the Limelight Documentary Series on the US streaming platform Hulu.
Morten Steingrimsen, the head organizer of the ”James Bond in Oslo” event, has seen a rough cut of ”This Never Happened to the Other Fella”. He confirms that quite a few of George Lazenby's non-Bond films will be covered in the documentary.
Today, 16 May 2016, is Pierce Brendan Brosnan's 63rd birthday.
The fifth man to portray James Bond 007 in the EON Productions film franchise (from 1995 to 2004), the Irish actor has also appeared in a Danish feature film. He played the co-lead opposite Trine Dyrholm inSusanne Bier's romantic dramedy "Love is All You Need" from 2012. And by the way, the original Danish title, "Den skaldede frisør", translates as "The Bald-headed Hairdresser".
"Love is All You Need" premiered at the Venice Film Festival that same year. I seized the opportunity to interview Pierce Brosnan – twice, in fact. An intimate two-to-one conversation was followed by a larger session with an international group of journalists. And yes, I shook his hand, which in James Bond terms makes three for six (I've also met Daniel Craig and George Lazenby).
Sadly, the year after this interview was conducted, Pierce Brosnan and Cassandra Harris' daughter, Charlotte Brosnan, died from cancer at the age of 42.
INTERVIEW WITH PIERCE BROSNAN, "LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED"
From Bond to Bier
Brian Iskov for Dagbladenes Bureau, September 2012
Working with Susanne Bier and her Danish ensemble of actors became a happy release for Pierce Brosnan after the straightjacket that was James Bond 007. Playing a cancer widower in Bier's romantic comedy ”Love is All You Need”, the Irish movie star drew on his own life experience
VENICE, ITALY – ”Tak” [thanks]. "Tusind tak" [thanks a lot]. And "du er smuk" [you are beautiful].
During his tenure as Agent 007 James Bond, Pierce Brosnan killed [Danish actor, ed.] Ulrich Thomsen and took private lessons in "Scandinavian tongues" with Danish model Cecilie Thomsen. But when we meet Brosnan during the Venice Film Festival in 2012, the Irish-born gent freely admits to a Danish vocabulary limited to the three phrases mentioned above.
No wonder that the then 59-year-old actor felt apprehensive when he ventured to Copenhagen in 2011 to prepare for his first lead ever in a Danish motion picture: ”Love is All You Need” (Den skaldede frisør) directed by Academy Award winner Susanne Bier.
– I was worried about my participation in it, am I gonna rock the boat? I was very nervous that I would take people out of the movie. Also, the actors all had such close proximity to each other. They've grown up together and been friends, lovers, whatever, Pierce Brosnan says.
– Someone like Kim Bodnia has powerful force. You look across the table at the dude, and he's gonna come at you. But he's funny!
Brosnan needn't have worried. From day one, everyone on the Danish film crew welcomed their colleague from abroad with open arms.
– I came into a tribe where I was cared for, nurtured, and laughed at in the best possible way for trying to speak the language, Pierce Brosnan says in his soft-spoken brogue.
– Luckily, the character [a British businessman living in Denmark, ed.] lent himself to this. I believed that [my character] could run this fruit company and never really got the hang of this Danish, always asking my secretary, "what are they saying?". The conceit, I think, was well founded.
Pierce Brosnan, Paprika Steen, Trine Dyrholm and Molly Blixt Egelind in "Love is All You Need" | Film still by Duane Gregory
Ace stunt driver (and Matthew Perry look-alike) Ben Collins turns 41 today.
Ben Collins doubled Daniel Craig during the opening Aston Martin car chase in the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" (EON Productions, 2008). He has also previously incarnated the mysterious The Stig on BBC's "Top Gear".
This exclusive interview with Ben Collins took place during the "Bond in Motion" press day at London Film Museum, 18 March 2014.
Ben Collins, any items you'd fancy from the "Bond in Motion" exhibition? There's nothing much here you wouldn't want to take home. The jetpack [from ”Thunderball”, 1965] would be brilliant for commuting. There's a dodgy little Renault 11 that had its roof decapitated in "A View to a Kill" (1985). I like that because the car chase was so wild. If I could take one home, it would be the DB5, obviously, because it's such a timeless look.
Ben Collins in the Aston Martin DBS from "Quantum of Solace" (2008). Photo by London Film Museum
You drove the Aston Martin DBS in the ”Quantum of Solace” (2008) opening car chase. What was it like for you as a race car driver to adapt to the stunt world? My job is normally about protecting the car and not putting dents in it. In ”Quantum of Solace”, the door gets ripped off, and the car gets smashed to bits. We pretty much destroyed 12 brand-new Aston DBS cars which brings a tear to the eye. But it looked really cool, so who cares!
Sometimes what looks very simple might turn out to be quite complicated. We did one scene in Siena with the car driving through a tunnel, which didn't look very impressive, but the gap on either side of the wind mirrors was less than a centimeter on either side. Suddenly you realise you could look really stupid if you make a mistake.
Detail of Aston Martin DBS from "Quantum of Solace" (2008) . Photo by London Film Museum
Could you describe what it's actually like, driving an Aston Martin DB5? Because I know I'm never ever gonna get to drive one. It's very smooth, because you've got lots off the suspension than what we get used to in cars these days. There's no ABS, no traction control - a lot of the bullshit, in a way, that we've been infected with with modern cars, doesn't exist on that car. Some people would be horrified to think that this car doesn't have all the electronic aids, and actually it's just very well-balanced, so in a lot of ways, the old style is much more effective than a modern car.
It's a little bit more complicated to drive, but ten times more rewarding than driving some modern box. And you feel everything in the road. When the car takes a corner, you feel it lean over, you can feel the tyres biting at the tarmac. No power steering. It's just got a lot more feedback, so you feel very connected. It's a super car to drive.
Aston Martin DB5 from "GoldenEye" (1995). Photo by London Film Museum
Some would say that Bond's DB5 outracing Xenia Onatopp's Ferrari in ”GoldenEye” isn't exactly a plausible scenario. I guess they were playing with each other, weren't they. They were racing, but not trying to get away from each other. In a straight performance, probably not, and certainly I would say that an Aston DBS is quicker than an Alfa Romeo. But there were a lot of obstacles in Bond's way, and I guess that's what makes the chase exciting.
Thanks to London Film Museum and Ben Collins. Happy birthday, Ben!
This interview with special effects supervisor and EON Productions veteran Chris Corbould took place during the "Bond in Motion" press day at London Film Museum, 19 March 2014.
Chris Corbould, your first Bond gig was as a special effects assistant on ”The Spy Who Loved Me” back in 1976. How many Bond films have worked on since then?
I've done 13 in all [14 including the later ”Spectre” - ed.]. The one film I didn't work on was ”Octopussy” (1983).
So you're definitely an integral part of the Bond family.
Yes. They [the Broccolis] are a great family to work with. I've had many great years working with them. Hopefully many more.
Chris Corbould with the Jaguar XKR from 'Die Another Day' (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images for London Film Museum)
Do you ever get to drive any of the cars in the films?
Absolutely. These [Jaguars and Aston Martins from ”Die Another Day” (2002)] are quite interesting, because my department had to modify both cars. We actually had four Jaguars and four Astons to be four wheel-drived, because there were no four wheel-drive models of these cars. The whole chase sequence, the battle sequence, happened on the ice, so we decided to convert them to four wheel-drive. Plus all the weapons. We had a lot of fun on this sequence on the ice, and because we were on ice, both cars had an inflating ... buoyancy system. So if they went through the ice, they would automatically inflate and keep both the driver and the car afloat.
And you're triggering all effects live from this radio-control console?
Yes. That controls the missiles coming out, the gun rotating, the gun firing ... You know, the driver has enough to do doing all the stunt driving, so we figured we wouldn't give him that responsibility. So we would always handle all the gadgetry that went on.
The SFX remote control gadget box for Vanquish and Jaguar (Die Another Day, 2002)
I'm guessing you didn't do the invisible car. That would have been another department.
No, no, no, we left that to somebody else. I'm not a great fan of that one, but there you go! I think we pushed the limits a bit too far on that one.
So which of the Bond cars did you like the most?
I enjoyed the Vanquish, I thought it was a nice car. Actually liked the one in ”The Living Daylights” (1987), which was a real meaty ... the Vantage?
The [Aston Martin] Volante? The black one with the outrigger skis?
Yeah, that was my favorite, because I was prepping that, doing all the preparation in Austria when we shot it, so we would take it out on the ice and drive it around the ice. It was a lot of fun.
Aston Martin V8 Volante from "The Living Daylights" (1987). Photo by London Film Museum
Did you work on the Lotus Esprit when you did ”The Spy Who Loved Me”?
Sadly, I didn't. I was on that film mainly based back in England, and they shot most of that in the Bahamas.
Is it true that you couldn't get the Aston Martin DBS in ”Casino Royale” (2006) to roll over because the tyre grip was too good?
It wasn't that. The centre of balance was so good that the stunt guys tried several times to steer into it and turn it, and in the end, we had to put a small nitrogen cannon in it. So as they turned into it, we would hit the nitrogen cannon, and it would make that flip. Once it was flipping, it was fine. It was just getting it flipping that was the problem, initially. But we got it in the end. They're just class cars, aren't they? They're not designed to flip over. They put a lot of work into them to make sure they don't flip over. We had to help it a little bit.
Apparently, around the time of ”GoldenEye” (1995), the British Automobile Association complained that Bond shouldn't be driving a BMW.
Well, so what really? You have to change every now and again, and when the Aston came back, everybody loved it again. You can't just stick with the same car every time. We had the Lotuses for a little while, we had the BMW's, and we're back to Astons now. It just makes it more fun, I think, if you change it a little bit every now and again. It would get boring if you just kept using the same car.
Aston Martin DB5 from "GoldenEye" (1995). Photo by London Film Museum
What do you think makes the Aston Martin such an iconic car?
I think it's quintessentially a very British car, as Bond is. It's a classy car, elegant, and it just lends itself to fast driving. And also, the gadgets that we put in it. You don't expect to see the gadgets coming out of such a classy car. I think [the contrast] that all helps.
Part of your job seems to be giving the cars personality beyond what they already have from the factory.
Yeah, character. Absolutely. That's what we strive to do. We have to really dig deep in your brain these days to try and come up with something that hasn't been seen before. I mean, when you look at how many of the cars have got missiles on! We have to strive and come up with something different.
Even though casting director Debbie (Deborah) McWilliams is one of the longest-standing members of EON Productions' Bond family, her media appearances have been few and far between.
Hence, it is my great pleasure to present this interview that I conducted in 2012 with the esteemed British casting director, who has cast every EON Bond film from "For Your Eyes Only" (1981) to "SPECTRE" (2015), with the America-based "Licence to Kill" (1989) being the only exception.
In the interview below, Debbie McWilliams discusses her casting of several Danish actors in the Bond series: Mads Mikkelsen, Jesper Christensen, Ulrich Thomsen and Cecilie Thomsen.
McWilliams also offers her opinion on the durability of the James Bond character.
Debbie McWiliams (publicity photo, 2011)
James Bond•O•Rama: So what's the secret? Why do you think James Bond has endured as a cultural icon for so long?
Debbie McWilliams: Bond is part of the blood stream. Any child, from the age when they can walk and talk, know him and make a hand like a gun, even if they haven't seen any of the films. It's inherited through our genetic system, quoted and referred to endlessly. My generation grew up with Bond, and younger generations take him for granted. He's sort of an unclassifiable hero, played by actors from different backgrounds, with different accents and hair colors. Also, he's a troubled hero. Even though we know he's going to win, he has a struggle that we like to watch. Finally, the films set a high standard. They always look good, whether the script is good or not. And even if the series has faltered from time to time, I think ”Skyfall” is gonna put it back up there again.
You've now been part of EON Productions' Bond family for more than 30 years, starting out on ”For Your Eyes Only” in 1981. This makes you one of the longest serving members of the Bond team along with producer Michael G.Wilson and production designer Peter Lamont!
Debbie McWilliams: Yes, I'm part of the furniture, as they say. The producers, Barbara and Michael, are very loyal to the people who work with them, and they've kept the family atmosphere on the Bond series. That all stems from Cubby [Albert R. Broccoli, co-producer of Eon's Bond series 1962-1974 and main producer 1977-1989; father of current co-producer Barbara Broccoli, stepfather of Michael G. Wilson, ed.]. He was fantastic, warm, always on the set, not shut away in his ivory tower. He threw parties, played jokes, cooked food for the actors and crew, and Barbara is much like that. They look after people. It's just the way they think people should be treated, and it produces good work.
