{"id":23188,"date":"2022-10-05T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T07:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1715710"},"modified":"2022-10-05T09:00:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T07:00:33","slug":"timothy-dalton-was-never-comfortable-as-bond-says-casting-director","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/timothy-dalton-was-never-comfortable-as-bond-says-casting-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Timothy Dalton was never \u201ccomfortable\u201d as Bond, says casting director"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Morgan Jeffery\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 05 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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James Bond casting director Debbie McWilliams has suggested that Timothy Dalton, the fourth actor to portray 007 on the big screen, never \u201cfelt quite comfortable\u201d in the role.<\/p>\n

McWilliams \u2013 who has cast every Bond film since 1981\u2019s For Your Eyes Only<\/a> \u2013 described Dalton\u2019s casting as a \u201cvery sudden event\u201d at the BFI\u2019s In conversation: 60 years of James Bond event.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest with you, I don\u2019t think he ever felt quite comfortable,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was so different from anything he\u2019d ever done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pierce Brosnan, who would go on to play Bond in four films between 1995 and 2002, was originally set to replace Roger Moore in 1987\u2019s The Living Daylights<\/a>, but had to relinquish the part of Ian Fleming\u2019s spy when NBC optioned his contract for another season of TV crime drama Remington Steele.<\/p>

Dalton, who had also auditioned for the part, was then selected as the new Bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he was cast was a very sudden event, because we had Pierce Brosnan lined up,\u201d McWilliams recalled. \u201c<\/span>I mean, obviously, you always have to have somebody up your sleeve, whatever happened. So he [Dalton] was kind of standing by in the wings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cQuite literally over the weekend he was cast and I think it was all a bit of a shock for him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dalton \u2013 who had previously worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in the 1980 film Flash Gordon<\/a> \u2013 would ultimately star in two Bond films, following The Living Daylights with 1989\u2019s Licence to Kill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Timothy Dalton as James Bond.<\/span><\/figcaption> Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

At the BFI event, Bond producer Michael G Wilson recalled how a famous sequence in Dalton\u2019s debut \u2013 which sees Bond and Kara Milovy (Maryam d\u2019Abo) escape the KGB amid a snowy landscape by using Kara\u2019s cello case as a sled \u2013 was not present in the original script. Instead, the scene was an invention of the film\u2019s director, John Glen.<\/p>\n

\u201cDick Maibaum and I were credited with writing the script, but that was not in the script,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThat was pure John Glen. That\u2019s him all the way in that one \u2013 it\u2019s the type of sense of humour he has.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n