The James Bond Questions Thread

mtm

What sort of person do you picture? I think I perhaps have someone in the slight Niven-ish 50s mould, if a bit heavier set. Sometimes it goes towards Lazenby a bit, as he has that sort of period look but doesn't bring personality baggage, if you know what I mean. I can never really imagine Connery as that's just a different character.

007HallY

It varies for me when reading Fleming. The Daily Express illustration comes to mind sometimes, but dependent on the passage or Bond's mood I tend to picture a young Oliver Reed or a young Christopher Plummer.

I think it's because both were quite striking looking. I just can't imagine Bond looking ordinary or quintessentially 'English' if that makes sense.

mtm

Oh yeah, I get that; I think Bond reflects on himself not really looking English in LALD, is that right? Plummer is a great shout especially.
I must admit Craig does work for me sometimes, he feels right.

George_Kaplan

I just thought it was a curiously specific reference when his description would've sufficed. In fact, I usually don't like it when a writer says a character looks like a film star or some other famous person. I find it a bit of a cheat, and inadvertently, boxes the reader into one way of picturing the character. It's more fun when you're given the freedom to just imagine it for yourself.

I don't picture anyone in particular. Although, I sort of imagine the book Bond as a cross between Ranulph Fiennes and the late Duke of Edinburgh; distinctly upper-class Englishmen (although much like Bond, the Duke wasn't actually English), but with a tougher edge, and an imposing, slightly intimidating presence.

Funnily enough, I was just watching an episode of the UK Crimewatch from the late-80s, and one of the police officers in the reconstruction looked exactly like Hoagy Carmichael.

007HallY

Craig's got those striking grey blue eyes and the cruel mouth which reminds me a lot of Fleming's description. You can also say he has a very steely/cold demeanour to him as Bond, so I can see it. Out of all the actors he's probably easiest for me to slot into Fleming, which is quite interesting.

The one I remember is him in Blades during MR and he imagines how the other patrons would see him. I think he acknowledges that there's something a bit alien and Un-English about him, especially with his tan from the previous book. Reed I can more easily imagine when Bond is being humorous (or let's be honest, a bit of a d*ck, especially when he's trying to wind up the villains) in Fleming, and Plummer when he has to be a bit colder.

mtm

George_Kaplan wrote: »

I just thought it was a curiously specific reference when his description would've sufficed. In fact, I usually don't like it when a writer says a character looks like a film star or some other famous person. I find it a bit of a cheat, and inadvertently, boxes the reader into one way of picturing the character. It's more fun when you're given the freedom to just imagine it for yourself.

Yeah, I know what you mean, it does seem a bit of a cheat. Especially when, I'd say, it kind of doesn't really matter exactly how they look.
Didn't Dan Brown famously write that Robert Langdon looks like Harrison Ford? I've never read any of those, but that does seem kind of laughable.

George_Kaplan wrote: »

I don't picture anyone in particular. Although, I sort of imagine the book Bond as a cross between Ranulph Fiennes and the late Duke of Edinburgh; distinctly upper-class Englishmen (although much like Bond, the Duke wasn't actually English), but with a tougher edge, and an imposing, slightly intimidating presence.

That's great: I'm pretty sure Ranulph Fiennes was actually approached to play Bond, wasn't he? Despite not being an actor!

EDIT: Just had a search and here's what he said about it in Reader's Digest:
Describing how he had been living with his wife Ginny, a childhood sweetheart, in Scotland at the time, where he had found work “adventure training”, teaching soldiers “how to canoe and climb to stop them beating each other up in the canteen when they were bored”.
He said: “One day a person delivered a note from the William Morris Actors Agency, which said that Cubby Broccoli—who made the Bond films—was fed up with George Lazenby because he was asking for too much.
“Broccoli decided he’d find somebody who did Bond-type things and train that person to be an actor.
“They approached about 200 of us from all over the place.
“I auditioned because it allowed me to have a free rail ticket from Inverness to London, which I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise.

“This enabled me to go to the Ministry of Defence, where they were looking for an ex-officer to lead an expedition in Canada with the BBC covering it.”
Despite the ruse, he did not get out of auditioning, writing in his autobiography that filmmakers were seeking a man to “shoot rapids, climb drainpipes, parachute, kill people...you know.”

“For some reason—God knows why—I got into the last six,” Sir Ranulph told the magazine. “Having practised Shakespeare the night before, I got into the room where Cubby Broccoli was smoking a cigar, with director Guy Hamilton just over his shoulder.
“Broccoli took one look at me and said to Hamilton, ‘This one looks like a farmer. Look at his hands.’
“Even though I had proper fingers in those days, they apparently weren’t what they were after.

“Still, I got the expedition and we never looked back.”

007HallY wrote: »

Craig's got those striking grey blue eyes and the cruel mouth which reminds me a lot of Fleming's description. You can also say he has a very steely/cold demeanour to him as Bond, so I can see it. Out of all the actors he's probably easiest for me to slot into Fleming, which is quite interesting.

Yeah it's funny, arguably the character he plays in the movies isn't quite Fleming's Bond, but there's something about the no-nonsense attitude and sort of stillness that works for the book character I think.

007HallY wrote: »

The one I remember is him in Blades during MR and he imagines how the other patrons would see him. I think he acknowledges that there's something a bit alien and Un-English about him, especially with his tan from the previous book. Reed I can more easily imagine when Bond is being humorous (or let's be honest, a bit of a d*ck, especially when he's trying to wind up the villains) in Fleming, and Plummer when he has to be a bit colder.

Yeah I can definitely see something of Reed's dry swagger in there!