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Havent think of Bateman but i think he should be consider.
That's a really interesting thought, it's true that pretty much all of the Bonds have come from working or middle class backgrounds, it's quite striking when you think about it really. Dalton's probably the poshest in terms of his background(?), and not really very posh at that.
That someone like Roger has an onscreen persona which is kind of a caricature of a posh, well-bred guy probably is to his strength, it's true. He's able to be on the outside looking in and making a comment on that, to some extent.
I think Sean Connery summed it up when he said the audience have to believe that Bond can throw a punch and seduce women, but there's very much that 'wink wink' element to everything. Not making fun of it necessarily, but playing it with that element of wryness, like the actor's in on the fantasy to some extent. It makes sense. Trying to lean too much into that refined side of Bond without, say, Moore's eyebrow raises or Connery's wry smile would be odd, and it just makes sense someone with distance might be able to get it a bit more (Bond is, after all, a character who kills for a living and has a ruthless streak to him. He'd either come off as a psychopath if the actor tried to authentically replicate that ex-boarding school, upper middle class image, or it'd be unconvincing).
Again, it's my major issue with the idea of Leo Suter as Bond. I don't know his background, but he has that 'nice Oxford boy' feel to him, at least to me. It's probably great for Lynley incidentally.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/apr/01/christopher-eccleston-impossible-for-me-to-become-an-actor-today
The opposite can be true as well: Humphrey Bogart was a posh boy from an upper class background, a doctor's son if I'm not mistaken, yet he played tough guys, cops, private eyes and gangsters, very much working class.
Have you seen a Roger Moore Bond film? Yes he was the son of a policeman, but didn't come off that way at all. You think he must've went to Eton and Oxford. Same thing with Pierce Brosnan, you feel he must come from an upper class background because he comes off as high class and high taste even in interviews despite his humble beginnings.
I get the sense that Roger's Dad was well-bred and well-adjusted despite his occupation. Just because you're a policeman doesn't mean you can't be a gentleman.
In that case I’d say Jacob Elordi would be a very good chance of being cast.
Although he’s rather tall, he could still play Bond. He’s had a relatively quick rise to stardom and is really making a name for himself.
Didn't know that! I know Daniel Day Lewis (whose Dad was the Poet Laureate at one point, seemingly grew up in a privileged household, and who started his career playing working class characters) claimed he moved to London in his teens and learnt to speak with a particular accent in order to fit in. It's interesting.
Yes I've obviously seen a Roger Moore Bond film ;) As we said Moore has this odd irony to him that almost seems like he's doing a pastiche of that 'gentlemanly' idea (the eyebrow raises, the smirks etc. Again, it helps that Bond can be harder edged and sometimes not very gentlemanly).. It's not something you quite get if you watch an actor like, say David Niven, playing a gentlemanly character. It's... different. Brosnan never stuck me as being from an upper class background. He has this strange Transatlantic accent with a bit of Irish in there. It makes him quite enigmatic if anything. You get the sense he's sophisticated but not really part of any specific social group. Same for Moore to some extent.
Personally, I can't imagine either slapping backs at any 'old boy' meetings or whatever. Having met a few people who have attended Oxford and boarding schools (who, yes, are quite posh) they really don't remind me of those sorts. I can acknowledge there's an element of fantasy there that kind of works when the film states that these specific Bonds went to Oxford at one point or are hyper educated or whatever (and because they come off as so knowledgable, confident, and smooth you just kind of go with the silliness - yes, of course Bond did a course and can speak Japanese, or tell you about very specific plants etc. Yes, of course Bond is doing something at a university and is sleeping with the female professor. That sort of thing. The actors themselves don't fit into a 'type' and are quite individualistic though if that makes sense. Perhaps these are subtleties not immediately apparent to American audiences either, so it can get a bit lost with certain people... anyway, my point is these actors clearly never attended Oxford, and there's a heavy dose of irony).