Bond as an American??
Robinson
Posts: 42MI6 Agent
To all US based site members (plus anyone else who would like to contribute),
I would be interested to learn about how you feel about Bond not being an American agent.
Would you prefer it if he spoke like a New Yorker and worked for the CIA?
If not, is there any part of his "Britishness" that you like?
In the 1954 version of Casino Royale of course, Barry Nelson played "Jimmy Bond", an American agent who drank Whisky, not Vodka Martinis. This idea was of course dropped by Broccoli and Saltzman years later.
Incidentally, I am British myself
I would be interested to learn about how you feel about Bond not being an American agent.
Would you prefer it if he spoke like a New Yorker and worked for the CIA?
If not, is there any part of his "Britishness" that you like?
In the 1954 version of Casino Royale of course, Barry Nelson played "Jimmy Bond", an American agent who drank Whisky, not Vodka Martinis. This idea was of course dropped by Broccoli and Saltzman years later.
Incidentally, I am British myself
Comments
Since Pierce is not British by birth and Lazenby is Australian, I don't have too much objection to opening the field to any capable actor as long as he convincingly pulls off a convincing accent, which Americans have been unable to do in the eyes of international audiences -- but then again Connery can never pull off an american accent no matter how hard he tries so the Americans are not alone in their inability.
Lois Maxwell is Canadian (English roots?) but had no problem as Moneypenny, and Canadians don't speak much different than americans aside from the stereotypical "eh" or the funny way they say "about." So there's always a possibility.
The general public is against the actor who plays Bond coming from outside the British Isles/Australia/NZ. I think the series is already americanized enough as it is, and has been for a long time (Exhibit A1971's Diamond Are Forever). The casting of an American regardless of how good of an actor he is would be the last straw for many people.
I don't think anyone wants to see Sherlock Holmes or The Saint or Raffles or any of the other classic British heroes change their nationality.Whatever would be gained by this?Why should we want to see that happen with James Bond?
If we really want to see an American James Bond we can always watch The Man From UNCLE--the tv series that was partially created by Ian Fleming.UNCLE agent Napoleon Solo is Fleming's own version of an American 007.There are countless other programs,novels and movies featuring American spies.Let's keep the James Bond character British.
For the record,I'm still a bit annoyed to see that Edgar Rice Burroughs' Lord John Greystoke,"Tarzan",is continually portrayed in motion pictures and on tv as an American when--as we all know--he's really an Englishman.
W.G.
Yeeah, Lazenby is Australian, but to some Americans, that's almost like being British (Sure to get some Aussie backlash for that one!). I think that the key term is "British," since it's a mixed bag when it come to Bond. Pop culture pegs Bond as English. Roger Moore is English. But Pierce is Irish, Timothy is Welsh, and both Sean and the literary Bond are Scots. So, I think that the boundary should be set at being "British," or even Aussie, since that has already been pulled off.
Oh come on Red, don't u know us limeys better than that? We love to see the americans get beat in the olympics!!
Bond should always be British, or at least from a British commonwealth/colony (we wouldn't want to forget Lazenby). James Bond is essentially British to the core. Irish, Scottish, Welsh, that's fine with me. Australian, ok. But American? The thought's pretty scary, even though I am an American.
Personally I'd be intrigued to see Bond played by a Canadian. What do people think of that?
say NO!!!
As for a Canadian I would have to say no, I think you would get too much of the Americanisms coming through. But then again it is the producers who make the films so they wouldn't let that happen and would pick a Canadian / American / anybody with the right style, and hopefully accent.
Being as I love the British as a people, I have no problem with a British Bond AT ALL. And anyway, he's a Briton anyway, so why tamper with a formula that's been good for forty-one odd years?
Ditto above. The reason? Name me an American actor who can do a convincing British accent (Australians can do very good British accents, but American actors IMO can't)
I thought Johnny Depp had a convincing english accent in From Hell. The only trouble was that he had a working class cockney accent and his character (as a Police Detective) would in those days have been middle class.
The attempt by an american to speak in an english accent that that us Brits laugh at the most is by Dick "Cor, Blimey Mary Poppins" Van Dyke. While Mary Poppins held that magic quality for me as a child, it is still worth watching as an adult just to hear Dick Van Dyke talk!!
However,if James Bond was an American, he wouldn't be Ian Fleming's creation...and that's the difference.A large part of 007's appeal to Americans-and others of various nationalities-is that he's a fascinating and fanciful British creation.
Bond exists in a world where it's hero speaks with a British accent,where Britannia still rules the waves,and where every villain is an easily identifiable and exaggerated foreign-born monster that only 007--out of everyone else in the entire world--can slay.
I think James Bond is an exotic figure to most Americans(and others),not because he's somehow superior to them--but because in fiction and in films he's unique.
Oh thats disapointing
Ok then, well politically were all on the same team
James Bond is British. Is there anything I like about that?
In a word...EVERYTHING.
Personally I would have a hard time accepting an American actor as Bond, let alone Bond himself being American.
Good lord, we American's just don't have it.
It's the humor, the style, the accent, the look...everything.
I'd find an American Bond deplorable! I mean we're lacking just the image of class. I'm not saying there aren't classy Americans, there's just something the limeys can have that we definitely can.
Bond is everything British...and he needs to stay that way.
Well put - I couldn't have said it better myself.
I know that we, Americans, love boasting our patriotism, but I agree with everyone else: I don't think I could stand Bond being anything other than the British gentleman that he is. I tend to think of British men and being a gentleman as synonymous (I'm sure that half of you just scoffed at that), so his nationality enhances the character. Besides a certain level of exoticness, I personally just liked that fact that I could get some insight into a different country and culture other than our own, with which we're oversaturated.
Yes, at one point, I thought, wouldn't it be great if Bond were an American, someone that could represent Americans? I soon realized that Bond's greatness was in large part due to him being British, and I'm a fan of the character and the nationality. Like some other Americans, I even sometimes spontaneously started talking with a British accent, thus single-handedly proving that Americans really aren't that good with that accent...
As someone who's very much in favor of Hugh Jackman eventually following Brosnan, I don't have a problem with an Australian, Canadian or dare I say it even a New Zealander (arghh...) playing JB but never an American.
When push came to shove, Cubby always resisted using an American even when people were pushing James Brolin, Burt Reynolds (yuk) etc.
I don't believe that Wilson/Broccoli will ever cast an American because they know it would be against Cubby's wishes.
Back to XXX, its just an one off movie. The most is a sequel and don't ever think it can survive a second sequel - XXX3 ...:))
I do beleve that you are crazy to think that bond being american would be any good. Rent any american action film you will see the same thing over and over.
If you do notice I am an american but i would not change bond one bit.
Vin Diesel a pretty boy? Hardly!
I do think that Bond SHOULD remain British; he's always been British, why change now? 'If it ain't broke don't fix it.' I am an American and I would not want to see an American Bond, just like I would never want to see a female Bond (sorry Sarah Michelle Gellar!). James Bond is known as a British spy and if he became American all of a sudden the public wouldn't buy it.
But to comment on our actors' lack of mastery in the art of foreign accents: American actors such as Gwenyth Paltrow, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Hudson, Angelina Jolie, and Renee Zellweger have all convincingly pulled a British accent. Plus, don't you think for a minute that every actor from the UK or Australia can always pull a Yankee accent!