Timothy Dalton said an interview with Vanity Fair that he turned down an original offer to play James Bond in his mid-20s because he didn’t think the character should be that young. Dalton also didn’t want to directly follow Sean Connery, whose initial run as 007 ended after six movies with 1971’s “Diamonds Are Fever.” Franchise producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli approached Dalton in the early 1970s to replace Connery.
“There was a time when Sean Connery was leaving and—I can’t say I was offered it, but I was asked if I’d like to do it or not,” Dalton said. “And I said no, because it seemed to me that the age of 24 or 25 doesn’t seem quite right for this character… He needs to be [older]. You could play it at that younger age, but I don’t know that I’d believe it that much.
When asked if saying “no” to Bond was a tough decision, Dalton responded: “It was easy enough. You don’t want to follow Sean Connery, who was truly, truly magnificent—and who I had been watching in the role since I was 13 or 14. No, don’t do that.”
Roger Moore ended up being Connery’s replacement, although Connery returned for a seventh and final Bond movie amid Moore’s run in 1983’s “Never Say Never Again.” Moore returned as 007 for the last time in 1985’s “A View to Kill.” That’s when Dalton was approached for a second time to play Bond.
“I was doing ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ at the Haymarket Theatre in the West End of London. I wasn’t chasing it. I remember being in a hotel room thinking, ‘What the fuck am I going to do about this?’” Dalton said. “And then I thought, ‘Well, it’s a once in a lifetime, isn’t it?’ Does good sense say, ‘Go and do something else,’ or does good sense say, ‘Take a once-in-a-lifetime and then go and do something else’? So you go and do it.”
Dalton accepted the role, but the one think he never did was talk about Bond to fellow 007 actors like Connery, Moore and his successor Pierce Brosnan.
“Well, I’ve spoken [to other Bond actors], yes, but not about Bond,” Dalton said. “Roger Moore, I met in the South of France and he was delightful. A really kind, nice, generous sort of person. Sean Connery, believe it or not, I met in a toilet. But no mutual recognition. I mean, one is discreet in a men’s room.”
Dalton said it’s “a pain in the ass” to discuss Bond with a fellow Bond actor, adding: “‘Can I talk to you about Bond, please?’ ‘Fuck off.’”
The actor starred as Bond in two movies: “The Living Daylights” (1987) and “Licence to Kill” (1989). He told Vanity Fair that he has no regrets about not making a third 007 movie, saying: “I have some good friends from the Bond days, some really good people, but they’re trapped. Everyone’s trapped by it in a way. I never really wanted to do more than three.”
Dalton has been making the press rounds in support of his role on “1923” Season 2. The new season kicked off amid news that Amazon had taken over creative control of the James Bond franchise from longtime producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.
“You just have to say that you hope Amazon does a damn good job,” Dalton told Vanity Fair. “You can’t say anything other than good luck and make it well. Follow the master.”
The actor previously told the Radio Times that he was “very surprised and shocked” by the news. Dalton added that Amazon will be “doing their best to make a lot of money, so hopefully they will make good movies.”
