It’s always been funny to me that when Ian Fleming wrote his first James Bond novel, he intended the character to be “dull”. Fleming: “When I wrote the first story, in 1953. I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened…” Kind of like a Forest Gump figure minus the mental issues, just wandering around wide eyed getting into strange situations and making the best of it.
Then a movie was made. Sean Connery was cast. And he wasn’t, by anyone’s definition, “dull”… this Bond was suave, smooth, exciting. Fleming met with the young Scottish actor… and wasn’t impressed: “He’s not what I envisioned of James Bond looks. I’m looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt man.” Too tall, too handsome, too domineering of a person. And, too Scottish.
Connery, undeterred, met with Fleming. And managed to charm his way into the writer’s heart. Fleming gave him a chance, and the studio their green light. The rest, as they say, is history. In fact, Ian Fleming was so pleased with the performance of Connery that in subsequent novels, the character James Bond was given a Scottish origin story.
Sean Connery owned the character of James Bond so much that the actual writer of the novels on which the character was based, altered that character to be more like him. That’s quite a feat. I’ve enjoyed other character’s take on Bond, some more than others. But Connery’s vision of the King of Spies will always be my number one — and it was Fleming’s number one, too. I could think of no higher praise.
0 Comments