Interview with Michael Lonsdale in Cinefantastique Spring 1979 by Frederic Albert Levy
MOONRAKER is the new James Bond thriller, which began filming last August 14, on Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Venice and Guatemala locations for producer Albert Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert. Roger Moore will return to play James Bond, as will 007’s deadly arch-enemy from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, “Jaws.” played by Richard Kiel. Screenwriter Christopher Wood has taken liberties with Ian Fleming’s original title and characters (the story was one of the first Bond properties optioned for filming back in the early sixties, and was almost made after FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE). Sir Hugo Drax, the villain of MOONRAKER, was described in the book as a former Nazi passing himself off as an Englishman, with a reconstituted face (the tragic result of unsuccessful plastic surgery) covered in grotesque red hair. Drax will in fact be portrayed by distinguished French actor Michael Lonsdale with a simple black beard and foreign accent, a far cry from the repulsive Drax of Fleming’s original novel.
Lonsdale does not seem to share the quasi-religious faith that producer Albert Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert have in the successful nature of the Bond films. But at the same time Lonsdale feels no contempt for the enterprise. During the interview, he didn’t seem too over-impressed by his “new power” as Bond’s arch¬enemy. His most famous international role was as Commissaire Lebel in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. His other film roles have been limited to European productions little-known in the United States.
We spoke with Lonsdale on the Paris sets of MOONRAKER in late November, while shooting was still in progress. The film is expected to be released by United Artists in July.
CF: Had you been interested in the Bond series before MOONRAKER?
ML: I saw the first three Bond films, but I did not find them amusing. But when I was proposed the part of Drax, I wanted to update my Bondian knowledge, and was very surprised at THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. I thought it was very good.
CF: Could you tell briefly the story of the film?
ML: James Bond is confronted with the case of a certain Dr. Drax, a billionaire who, just like Hitler, wants to select a super-race of men, pure and beautiful, and take them to a planet, have them reproduce there, and in the meantime destroy all that is on this planet Earth - to afterwards bring back here his new perfect human race.
CF: This has very little to do with Moonraker, the novel.
ML: As far as Drax is concerned, the film script is much simpler. Drax is not English in the film - he is just presented as a “foreigner.”
CF: Do you pay attention to the technical aspects of the film?
ML: Oh yes. I was literally moved when I saw Ken Adam’s set for the satellite control room. That was really something! There was magic about it, something fantastic.
CF: You are working with an international crew on MOONRAKER. Does that create a particular atmosphere?
ML: There is no difference, really. Although half the crew is French, including the director of photography Jean Tournier, who replaced an ill Claude Renoir, the whole thing is essentially British.
CF: If, as a spectator, you are interested in the lavish sets, aren't you afraid, as an actor, they might do you harm?
ML: Yes, but every part you play is a risk to take. It can be good or bad for you. But I really have a good time, because I was used to filming in cramped rooms with dingy cameras. The English know how to save the actor from bothering about any technical question. As for my part as such, I was somewhat surprised when Lewis Gilbert told me, “the villain is the villain;” Lewis thinks in Shakesperean terms. When people go to see a James Bond film, they go to see certain elements. After ten films, they don’t want to be confronted with a psychological drama, or something they would normally see in another film— they come to see a James Bond film. But I think there is more to it. In MOONRAKER, the villain Drax represents a whole catagory of paranoid and crazy people, those who believe there is some purity to be kept in this world. For me it’s a change from the minister and president roles I’d been playing for so long. But I will be too pleased to shave off this cruel beard.
CF: Does Drax have any ruthless henchmen?
ML: Of course! I have a Japanese servant, but Bond wipes him out very quickly. When I want a replacement, somebody suggests “Jaws,” and I accept right away.
CF: You are fairly tall, but you have to look up when you talk to Richard Kiel?
ML: Richard Kiel is a very nice guy. He’s a math teacher in California. He is an example of of how the cinema can change somebody’s life. You couldn’t say he is a good actor, but he’s got presence, which is the essential thing.
CF: I had thought "Jaws" came back in this film as a "good guy. "
ML: He becomes a good guy at the end of the film. Bond makes him realize that there will be no place for him in the world conceived by Drax.
CF: How does Drax die?
ML: He is shot by one of those special Bond darts and thrown out of the satellite.
CF: What is your relationship with Lewis Gilbert? Can he pay much attention to the actors, if he is already busy with technical problems?
ML You know, that question reminds me of the time I worked with Joseph Losey. A couple of times I asked him, “How would you like me to play this part?” but he looked so frightened, and I understood I should not ask him such a question, because he had no idea of what the answer was. As for Lewis, some of that applies since he is working almost totally in relation to the film’s technology and set decor. At one point, I suggested to Lewis that I should stand up and get closer to a big globe on the set. And Lewis just said, “Yes, good idea, if you want to do it that way.” One scene in the film shows a gondola flying across Piazza San Marco in Venice. Lewis knows his job, and there are very few ways to shoot a scene like that. We actors have to add something amusing here and there. Lewis asked me to be more of a smiling Drax. I personally would have played the character as more severe, but Lewis pointed out that Drax is a happy character, content with what he’s doing.
CF: And about Bond, the character?
ML: “Mr. Bond, you reappear with the inevitability of an unloved season” is one of the niceties I tell him. The dialogues are fairly short and direct. Roger Moore is a very nice person. I didn’t know him well, but he came to me one day to congratulate me on my performance in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. Originally, he was to have played the jackal, by the way. I think he is one of the rare actors who can afford to do Bond and then do something else. He’s got humor, and always shows that he does not take the part too seriously.
CF: How were you chosen to play Drax ?
ML: An important casting director in France, Margot Capelier, suggested me for the Drax role. And perhaps Roger Moore had me in mind from my performance in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. I think James Mason was offered the part first. But he turned it down. Some actors perhaps do not want to participate in James Bond films.
CF: Do you feel there is always a very strong relationship between Bond and his enemy?
ML: Of course. We’re dealing with archetypes. It all depends on what you think is good, and what you think is not. Is the law, is justice good? There is always a good hero and a bad villain. And although this picture is something of a caricature, symbolically, that good/ evil concept is what is in people’s minds. Bond has the license to destroy, the license to kill, which is one of the great unconscious factors of mankind, killing in the name of Justice. A James Bond film is, I think, seen by one person out of four on earth. The films do not pretend to bring any revolutionary ideas to the cinema, but they are “entertainment.” And they are based on certains notions fundamental in the world, good and evil. Bond is just Judex with another name, or Zorro. He is defender of the Law. I do have a concealed violence, which I’m afraid of, and which I get rid of in parts I play; it really does me good. For even all those people who don’t like violence might be secretly violent. My life as an actor certainly helped me acquire some balance. I think that any artistic activity derives from a need to give the world a new, satisfying balance.
END OF INTERVIEW
While it’s good to see someone not toeing the company line in an interview, I do feel that Lonsdale is up his own backside in some of the stuff he says. Meanwhile, once again, Ken Adam’s sets are praised, concurring that these are the real stars of the movie.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
He also says a number of spoilers. Agree re Ken Adam, of course.
It's been known for a long time that James Mason had been at least considered to play Drax if not actually offered the part as Lonsdale suggests above, and while he was an admirable actor I don't think he could have improved on Lonsdale.
Didn't Mason play a Nazi in some Boys of Brazil type film? Thing is, he'd have lacked the surprise factor, and have been too old. With Moore as Bond, it might have had that North by Northwest feel to it, as the two keep running into each other and so on.
Was that the idea then, at one point, to base it more on Fleming's novel to some extent, as least with the Drax character? I prefer Drax in the film as not German, nor with any Nazi links - the series has hardly ever mentioned the Nazis save from Bond on the golf course in GF and the land mines in FYEO, and talk of Kristatos' wartime activities. It's just a bit close to the bone.
Here's an interesting snippet from an early 1980s edition of Starburst magazine, in which Sean Connery willingly discusses James Bond, in particular the recent For Your Eyes Only, and the chances of his returning to the role. Like on of those interviews where John Lennon doesn't outwardly reject reforming the Beatles, you felt that of course if Connery did return to the role, he's absolutely knock it out the park, especially given the wisdom of the comments below...
Interview with Vic Armstrong - by Alan Jones - Cinefantastique December 1999.
Although Michael Apted was at the helm of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, as so many have before him in the same position, he turned to his second unit director Vic Armstrong to insure the action sequences were the best they could possibly be. The first James Bond adventure stunt man Victor M. Armstrong worked on was YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE back in 1967 and his special touch has since graced ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, LIVE AND LET DIE, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and TOMORROW NEVER DIES.
Armstrong's name is alway somewhere on the credit of the best action movies. From TOTAL RECALL and THE PHANTOM to STARSHIP TROOPERS and ENTRAPMENT, Armstrong professed to a love/hate relationship with the industry he's so much a part of because of the arduous challenges he faces on a daily basis. “The hardest part of my job is trying to be original," he said. "You rack your brains for bigger and better stunts because the one person you can't cheat is yourself. I know what I've done before on other movies and I strive to be different each time. You have no idea how tough that is.”
Nevertheless, Armstrong has faced the gruelling task of bringing Bond into the 21st century with THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and credits his close relationship with Michael Apted for that. "Our collaboration has been marvellous and has worked like a dream. I advise him on what looks good within a scene - the little nuances in the physical performances that count - while he tells me what quirks he wants me to include in mine. I hate second unit directing, in truth. I much prefer directing proper. I directed ARMY OF ONE in 1993 and an episode of THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES. The latter featured no stunts because producer George Lucas thought that would be amusing. But if you are going to do a second unit job you might as well work with the best like Apted and Pierce Brosnan. Pierce is fantastic and his dry sense of Irish humor really makes everything go with a sparkle. I sometimes never know if he's joking or not."
Armstrong's work on THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH has mainly split into four basic action sequences. "The first is the boat chase down the River Thames in London," he recounted. "The second is the ski chase in the French Alps. The third is the battle on the walkways of Zukovsky's caviar factory in Azerbaijan. The fourth, which we are sharing half and half with the main unit, is the Russian submarine sinking vertically into the Caspian Sea. The latter has taken us to the Bosphorous and back to Pinewood and includes the submarine tilting, diving and flooding, the fight in the reactor room between Bond, Renard and Christmas, Bond 's escape, and then the whole thing blowing up..,”
Armstrong said the Thames boat chase was the most difficult stunt sequence of all. The chase takes in many London tourist sights - the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and Docklands -as tuxedoed 007 pursues the mysterious Cigar Girl at 60 mph in a Bentz boat. "Working on water is always hard and time consuming," said Armstrong. "We had a 25-foot tide level to consider and we had to change all the moorings in the afternoons when the water ran in reverse. We photographed the entire sequence with an armada of 35 boats and also used a flying camera from Belgium so we could dive under the bridges along the Thames. We shot for seven days on the river itself and then moved to Docklands so we wouldn't have to contend with the tidal problems. That's where we filmed the jet-powered boat leaping out of the water and zooming along the roads through an East End market. We had warned all the workers on the Thames and the only ones who complained were Members of Parliament in the Houses of Parliament. Typical! The people we are paying to be there and who were going to earn revenue off the film were the only ones to register complaints."
The ski sequence was shot in the French Alps during avalanche season and, in fact one of the worst bits while the movie was there. " It was tough to keep going when you knew some of the people whose lives were lost," he said. "Working on snow is so scary because you are air-lifting 180 crew members in on helicopters to areas that could shift. We were landing on slopes inches away from a complete vertical drop. One gust of wind and it would have been all over. ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE has a great radical skiing sequence in it and to make our's different, we used these great devices called parahawks - a sort of cross between a parachute and a motorized glider which you steer to land and take-off. Despite the problems such a sequence entails, I do prefer shooting on location rather than in the studio because the latter has such a factory feel. You have to rehearse and rehearse on location, of course, and then try and make it all look spontaneous, but I rise to those occasions more than tackling problems in a studio tank.”
But one of Armstrong's studio-set sequences which he thinks is going to be a major highlight is the caviar factory one. "We shot that on the Pinewood backlot on a set that cost over $1 million," he said. " It's a night-time sequence and has two helicopters with circular saws attached to their under-carriage attacking Bond on wooden walkways and cutting up the whole building. The helicopters are actually used to cut trees back from high tension cables and we've adapted them for this thrilling scene."
Although Sophie Marceau did her own skiing in the Alps, Pierce Brosnan turned out not to be that adept at the sport. So Brosnan did most of the boat chase sequence instead. Armstrong added, "We had to be careful, though, as the waves at those speeds were hitting him in the face like sledgehammers. We must never risk our lead actor or put him in a position where he can black his eyes or lose a tooth. But because Pierce wanted to legitimize the sequence as much as he could we used him a great deal more than expected. Sometimes it is better to use stunt men because all they are thinking about is the stunt in question. An actor is worried about that, and looking good, and remembering his lines. Not a good combination."
Working with the same crew he's had on his last five movies, Armstrong feels he's done his job on THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH. "What's the difference between this one and TOMORROW NEVER DIES? We did more traveling to exotic locations on the last. Making the Bond films special is so hard, you know. You want realism within the tongue-in-cheek aspects, yet you can't step outside Bond 's character or that destroys the unique atmosphere. Staying within the Bond rules, yet trying to be fresh and original while he saves the world again is a nightmare."
END OF INTERVIEW
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Not cast or crew but close enough, and interesting enough to include in this thread is an interview with continuation author Raymond Benson with Rich Handley in Cinefantastique December 1999:
For four decades moviegoers have thrilled to James Bond's on-screen adventures, reveling in his world of fast cars, faster women, and deadly assassins. Film fans know Bond as a character larger than life, a man who dispatched attackers without spilling his martini, has a witty rejoinder for any situation, and gets any woman be wants. However, readers know a different version of the character. For them, the true James Bond is not the super-hero of Hollywood, but rather the dark, bitter, vice-ridden assassin Ian Fleming created in the 1953 novel Casino Royale.
Fleming's work had a moderate but devoted following, which rose dramatically when John F. Kennedy announced his fascination with the series. In total, he produced 12 novels and nine short stories about Bond, most of which have been filmed by Eon Productions. Upon his death, Kingsley Amis was hired to write a follow-up tale, Colonel Sun, but no other Bond novels appeared until 1981, when John Gardner brought Bond into the '80 with License Renewed. Though some bristled at changes made to Bond's character (Gardner made him younger than his actual age for credibility's sake and borrowed several film elements, the novel met with success and Gardner went on to write 13 more original novels and two film novelizations before retiring in 1996.
Enter Raymond Benson, a West Texas-born composer, writer, and game designer whose encyclopedic James Bond Bedside Companion I widely regarded as the definitive book on the James Bond phenomenon. His role-playing adventure YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE II: BACK OF BEYOND was published by Victory Games as part of the James Bond 007 Role-Playing Games, and he also wrote text-based interactive video games based on GOLDFINGER and A VIEW TO A KILL.
Benson was hired to continue writing the 007 novels in 1996. His first novel, Zero Minus Ten, appeared the following year and was serialised by Playboy, which also published his short story “Blast From The Past” the same year. He rounded out 1997 with the novelization of TOMORROW NEVER DIES. His second original novel, The Facts of Death, appeared in 1998 {also excerpted in Playboy), followed by a second short story, "Midsummer Night's Doom," a third original novel, High Time to a Kill, and the novelization of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, all in 1999.
Benson's original aspirations involved the theater. After graduating in 1978 from the University of Texas at Austin with a BFA in Directing, he moved to New York City and spent several years directing and composing music in the off-off-Broadway and off- Broadway arenas. Noted Benson, "One day, some friends and I were sitting around and the discussion came to ' What sort of book would you write if you had to?' My answer - a book about James Bond mainly because I was so knowledgeable about the subject.,, His father had taken him to see GOLDFINGER when he was nine years old, he said, which "hooked" him on Bond forever. Quickly devouring Fleming's novels by age 11, Benson kept up with "all things Bond on into adulthood. Thus was born the Companion, which took three years to complete, and established him as a Bond expert worldwide.
While writing the book, and during his six years as Vice President of the American James Bond 007 Fan Club, Benson became friendly with Peter Janson-Smith at Glidrose Publications {the copyright holders to the literary Bond) and the Fleming family. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Ian Fleming Foundation, a not-for-profit organization run by Glidrose, the Fleming family, and Bond/ Fleming enthusiasts, which procure , archives, and restores memorabilia associated with Fleming and Bond, their long- term goal to erect a permanent museum. The connections afforded him the chance to take over from Gardner.
Fleming served in the British Navy and was known to have been a womanizer and drinker like his famous super-spy, but Benson calls himself "a normal guy," adding, "I'll be the first to admit that I don't have some of the experiences in life that Ian Fleming had, but I think I'm able to draw upon the spirit and mood that he created and go my own way from there. A good imagination helps, I suppose. An author doesn't have to be an astronaut to write science fiction." To this end, Benson researches all locations appearing in his novels, and says he attempts to recreate the flavor of Fleming's famous restaurant menus, dining sequences, and detailed gambling scenes."I travel to all the locations in my books that I can and experience a lot of stuff that ends up in the books. My wife read Zero Minus Ten and said, 'Wow, it's our trip to Hong Kong and China... only with danger!"'
This is one reason Benson prefers writing original material over writing film novelizations. "They're the author's work, from conception and storyline to the finished product. That's not to say that novelizations can't be fun. I had a blast doing TOMORROW NEVER DIES...the main dif- ference, of course, is that the storyline, the outline,' so to speak, is given." His original work, he says, is much more involved. Glidrose requires an outline for each novel, which he considers extremely useful though he admits it's the most difficult part of the entire process. " My outlines are 15 pages or so of prose-broken out chapter by chapter - describing everything that happens in the book. Coming up with a plot is extremely difficult because so much has already been done!” Once the outline is finished (which takes him two to three months) he travels, researches his locations, and then comes back to write the novel, which he delivers nearly nine months before publication. The entire process lasts about 18 months for each novel.
Benson has a vast canon to draw upon for his books. Preferring not to reference the role-playing game and comics based on James Bond, or the Christopher Wood novelisations of MOONRAKER and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, he finds the 32 novels and story collections more than enough to remember. "It's harder than one would think, even for someone who knows the books fairly well. There are little mistakes here and there- we've all made them. Even Fieming! '
To illustrate, Benson cites The Facts of Death:"I had the head of the MI6 office in Athens as Stuart Thomas, who had been created by Kingsley Amis in Colonel Sun. What I forgot was that Stuart Thomas is ' missing and presumed dead,' a speculation buried somewhere in the last quarter of that book!"
Luckily, Benson has the freedom to pick and choose what to use or ignore from the previous books, so such minor errors are not a big problem. For instance, though Gardner made Bond a Captain in Win, Lose or Die, Benson felt "Commander Bond" sounded better and demoted him again. "There was an explanation somewhere that indicated that Bond's promotion to Captain was only temporary for that assignment," recalled Benson, "but I think it got edited out from wherever it was.
What has been problematic is Bond's age. Fleming’s Bond served in World War II, and yet Benson is supposed to be writing about the same character! Benson (and Gardner before him) chose to deal with this dilemma the same way Eon has in the films -namely to ignore it altogether.' We're dealing with an ageless Bond now...characters like Bond go through time warps as they continue over the years. Superman and Batman have been going since the 30’s!”
Benson considers himself a "purist." preferring Fleming's original novels to the film versions. He would welcome the chance to write a Bond film and grants,'You can’t argue with success. The films are what made Bond the icon he is today, and they're what initially got me into Bond. I love the films, even the ones that are not-so-great."
Whether or not Benson will get to write a James Bond screenplay, he enjoys being Ian Fleming's successor on the novels. He's satisfied with his financial compensation; he's happy having such artistic freedom; he maintains that none of his ideas have been rejected by Glidrose; and he's grateful for the privilege of chronicling the adventures of a character who has fascinated him his whole life. As such, it's no wonder that he plans to continue to write James Bond books. 'As long as they'll have me!"
END OF INTERVIEW
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Interview with Cubby from the Moonraker Official Magazine (1979):
Albert R Broccoli is a personal filmaker. Unlike many producers, he is almost always on the set, and is ever-willing to pitch in on menial chores to help his film succeed. Without Broccoli’s drive and faith in the Bond character, the series would not be the legend that it has become.
Born in Astoria, Long Island, Broccoli learned early on the value of hard work. He took a job on his uncle’s farm and, by the age of sixteen, was driving huge truckloads of vegetables to various markets. Shortly thereafter, he began to study journalism at nightschool. Then, on a fateful visit to Hollywood in 1933, he fell in love with the industry. He remained behind, landing his first job in the mailroom at 20th Century Fox. After serving in World War II, he became an actor’s agent, and then a producer. His first film was THE RED BERET in 1952, and was followed by such hits as HELL BELOW ZERO, PARATROOPER, COCKLESHELL HEROES, and others. In 1962 he co-produced DR. NO, and the rest is history.
Though Broccoli travels the world over to shoot his motion pictures, he and his author-wife Dana make their home in California.
This interview with Mr. Broccoli was conducted by Richard Meyers while the producer was in New York promoting MOONRAKER.
Q: As everyone no doubt knows, the James Bond of the movies and the James Bond as written by the late Ian Fleming are totally different. How did you make the transition from printed page to celluloid?
A: Well, actually, these films are not created the way Fleming created his books. We tried to be very astute scholars of the Fleming work. I knew him, after all, and he was a lovely man. So we tried to find out what James Bond was all about. When he died it was a great loss to us — especially because he began to like what we were doing. We tried to roll with and learn from the changes. But even Fleming noted he was running out of enthusiasm doing the books. In fact, in the novel THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, he tried to bring himself to kill off James Bond. We decided, as we went on that changes were necessary. As we continued filming and continued writing screenplays, things developed.
Q: Roger Moore was quoted as saying several years ago that he wanted THE SPY WHO LOVED ME to be his last Bond picture. Then he went ahead with MOONRAKER. Are you gearing up to search for another new James Bond?
A: No, I’m not making any search. If Roger wants to do it, he can. We'll let him do it. But then again, if he doesn’t want to do it we'll find somebody else, only because we're forced to. As we were forced to find somebody to take Sean Connery’s place. We came up with George Lazenby, whose picture was not unsuccessful. It was a very profitable picture (ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE.) I have a feeling it would have been more profitable with someone else starring. Like Sean Connery. But now Roger has filled the gap so nicely we go with him. He’s a bigger money maker worldwide than any of the Bonds. People everywhere have accepted him.
Q: Do you think the character of James Bond has changed even between the last film and MOONRAKER?
A: Yes, I think so. It's changed quite a lot over the years.
Q: How so?
A: Well, going back to the Sean Connery Bond ... it was changed because we did not need the Sean Connery type. Bond, as we saw him was a cool type. I have said this before, but it’s true. Roger plays Bond closer to the image Fleming set in his books. Bond is light-hearted, humorous, a bit nasty, or course, and a bit rough; yet, outside that front there's a lot of humor. I mean, we can laugh with him and at him. We can laugh when a man like Jaws picks him up with one hand and throws him across the room. We might feel sorry too, but we can enjoy seeing him getting the crap kicked out of him. But the best comparison I can think of between the two types of Bond is when you see Dick Powell and Humphrey Bogart play the detective character Philip Marlowe in two movies. Dick Powell played Marlowe (in MURDER MY SWEET) the way Roger played Bond. And Marlowe would be played by Bogart (in THE BIG SLEEP) the way Sean Connery played Bond. They're two different types, you take your pick, you pay your four dollars, and you choose which one you want to see. Or maybe both, they’re both very successful.
Q: Getting on to MOONRAKER, did you consciously attempt to emulate STAR WARS?
A: We didn’t at all. We did these space things because of the natural talent of our crew. I’m speaking of Ken Adam's sets and Derek Meddings who is so good with special effects. The departure from Earth-bound action came because of their talents and because as we went on writing these things we saw Bond in space.
Q: And how did that idea develop?
A: We visited places like Rockwell International and NASA. As we talked to these people, the reality of what they were trying to do took shape. We attended a seminar where all these marvelously talented scientists explained space colonies to us. As all these people told us these things, we began to realize we had a story here. These scientists could put up a station like the one we have in our picture but they don’t have the money. Anyway, I am not a scientist, I’m repeating what I heard like a parrot — and maybe not too well. But basically we worked on the space station idea and developed it into a complete story. It’s not science fiction ... it’s science fact we think. We’re closer to science fact in our approach than science fiction.
Q: Your finished Bond scripts are usually wonderful combinations of humor, action, and romance. It hardly seems the work of one man.
A: Well, we're all involved. I am very much involved. I'd like to think that I’m a very important part of this. I have been from the very beginning with my then-partner Harry Saltzman. We said what we wanted to say. And I’d like to think that I’m still a creative producer. I have the ideas and they have to be written, so we employ writers to do that. I don’t think even the greatest writer in the world can just sit down and write a James Bond story to my liking. They need our discussions. And when I say “‘our,” I mean not mine alone. I mean our director, our executive directors, and many others. There are many who come in only for consultation, and then there’s Ken Adam’s set designs. All are important. That’s the way we are. It isa team that does Bond. It isn’t any one of us.
Q: How great a contribution does a director make in the success of a Bond film?
A: I think a big contribution if he’s good. Lewis Gilbert is good. But he’s a Bond director, you see. I think one has to earn your reputation as a director, or a writer, or even a producer for that matter. Especially on a Bond. You can’t just fit in automatically on your first Bond picture. And I think we all learn a lot every time out. Including Lewis. But the great quality Lewis has is his unflappability. The whole ceiling could be falling down and he’s just talking about a way to overcome it, He never gets nervous, he never throws up his hands and says ‘we're in trouble.’ And sometimes we are in trouble! It’s amazing. Whereas other directors I’ve had on Bond get panicky and don’t know what to do, a director has got to find a way out. Lewis always finds his own way out.
Q: How much do you think the music lends to a Bond movie?
A: Now, I don’t think anybody can score a picture like John Barry for suspense. I mean, with all due respect to Marvin Hamlisch (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME), who I like very much, and George Martin (LIVE AND LET DIE), who I like, there’s a certain thing that Barry gives to a picture just at the right moment that helps the action, helps the suspense, helps the nature of the sequence. Whether it’s a love scene or a fight scene or whatever, there's a thing about Barry. I think he is one of the great cinema composers.
Q: You did a rather incredible thing between THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and MOONRAKER. You pushed the budget up by over ten million dollars!
A: Well, WE didn’t push the budget up. The forces of nature pushed the budget up. The forces of economy, the forces of inflation, and the incredible cost in Europe, France — England for that matter — and wherever we went! All of the prices are rising and yet we won't diminish the quality of the picture.We cannot ever do that. Otherwise we'd stop making them. We can’t do a dirty deal on the audience. After all these years, the Bond syndrome is getting stronger instead of lessening. So now are we going to say ‘we can afford to pull back and give themless quality?’ That ‘no one will know the difference?’ It’s not true. The audience knows. I give them credit for that. Our public knows. They either like us or hate us, but they know the quality’s there.
Q: I heard that the opening sequence called for something like 600 sky dives in order to get everything filmed.
A: Well, I’m not sure how many exactly but it’s in the neighborhood of that to get it all together. I think one man alone took about 80 sky dives. And it’s for real. For reall! When you see a man go out of a plane without a parchute, it’s really a man falling without a parachute. Its interesting, but the Bond audience is always expecting something spectacular. They are saying, ‘okay, do something you didn’t do last time, better than you did last time.’ And that’s very, very difficult.
Q: What would you consider the most difficult thing you did on MOONRAKER?
A: I think all the various flying sequences, down the waterfall, and all that was very difficult to get. We're always under pressure. At one point we were trying to shoot scenes that would match up with shots done previously in Rio when it was 110 degrees, Right in the middle of ‘pick up’ filming, it started to snow. Just needed one bright day and one good town!
Q: Given the hectic shooting schedule, did you have time for the same sort of outlandish fun that has become familiar to Bond sets?
A: Fun? Yes, we have fun, but I can’t think of any terribly amusing things at the moment. We had torrential rain in Rio, snow in London, and the first night we were ready to shoot 500 extras representing the carnival, Rio had the first bus strike in their entire history! We had no way to move these people onto locations.
Q: Think someone was trying to tell you something?
A: If we got in or out of anywhere we were lucky.
Q: So its been quite a challenge all around. Where do you see Bond going now?
A: I don’t know. We've been almost every place under the sun. Under the ocean, over the waves. Well, I’ve no idea.
Q: Was there anything you wanted to put in MOONRAKER you weren’t able to?
A: Yes, there were a lot of things we wanted to put in but we're not going to talk about that because we want to save those things for the next J.B. They're exciting ideas, but putting them in MOONRAKER would have been a bit too much. We don’t like to run too long. Two hours and ten minutes seems to be sufficient.
Q: Putting together any Bond really seems to be a major task. Would it be safe to say that you're fairly obsessed with James Bond?
A: Close. I’m obsessed, if that’s the word, with continuing to make them because there’s a huge public out there wanting to see them made. If I stop making them and they’re still successful, somebody else has to come along and do them. We're already grooming people to take over, so I wouldn't say it’s an obsession with me, really. I’ve been making Bonds for 18 years and I'd love to make something else. I’m planning to.
Q: One thing you can probably admit about the Bonds: no matter how big your budget, you have an exceedingly loyal crew that doesn’t have to stick with Bond time after time, but they keep coming back.
A: They like it and they're the best. And they are directly responsible for the success of the film.
Q: It shows the kind of dedication and the kind of work you get from them. I’ve noticed that the Lewis Gilbert Bonds even look more opulent than others in the series.
A: Well, he spends money (laughter).
Q: Speaking of money, what kind of business do you hope MOONRAKER will do in the United States?
A: I hope it will break even. I hope we do no less than break even.
Q: So you're not the kind of man who plans or plots or harbors hopes?
A: I dare not. I dare not. I hope the public will make up their minds about it. This is the truth; the public is the one who is going to decide the success or failure of the picture. They're not seeing it because they like me, you know. But if they like the picture, you're home free.
Q: On the other side of the coin, do you think critics have been unjustly cruel to Bond films?
A:I have no complaints. People like Bond, people hate Bond. But as long as they go to see it I don't care one Way or the other. Some of them, not all of them I’m sure, get tired of Bond's success. Their attitude seems to be, ‘Oh hell, must we say something about it?’ Or, ‘Just because it survives another bash by the critics, must we be nice to it?’ Well, I don’t know. They do what they think is right.
Q: So basically, you intend to produce Bond as long as the public enjoys it.
A: Yes. Bond will probably continue even if MOONRAKER doesn’t do as well as expected. But, you know, I will find it disheartening if this picture doesn’t please the public tremendously. I will consider myself a very bad judge because I think it’s the best effort we've made so far. I mean, in my view, it’s not only one hell of a good Bond picture, it’s one hell of a picture, period. Even if the hero were named Joe Smith, I think you'll have found it a good film. And I’ve even stuck out my neck like that. It’s just one hell ofa good film..
Q: It must be frightening to consider leaving the security of the 007 series to do other things.
A: Well, it’s a difficult decision, but I’m not abandoning Bond. I'm not tiring of Bond, but I am anxious to do something else, You know, people think I can only do Bond movies. I want to prove I can do something else.
Q: Anything in particular?
A: Oh, no particular thing at the moment. I have four or five different properties.
Q: Then how about the next Bond movie?
A: I haven't planned a thing yet. I don't plan to plan anything. I don’t even want to think about it! Let’s wait until MOONRAKER is out and flying. Then I’ll think about what’s next.
END OF INTERVIEW
I found this an interesting interview - especially the John Barry comments and how the others didn’t match up to him. Personally I think Hamlisch shook things up and because of the score for TSWLM we got the score that we did for MR from Barry who seemed to have got bored with TMWTGG. It’s also interesting how he says that critics don’t bother him yet he issued an injunction both sides of the Atlantic on John Brosnan for the updated book James Bond In The Cinema, it was granted in the UK but dismissed in the USA where it was published.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Thanks CHB. Apart from the Barry comment, the one that struck me was the comparison of two Bond actors to two Marlowe actors, and I believe Cubby's thought was perfectly correct. He's not the first Bond film maker to compare Connery to Bogart (that would be Terence Young, followed later by John Huston) but I'd never heard Sir Rog compared to Dick Powell before!
Interview with Maud Adams in Octopussy Official Magazine 1983
Maud Adams is the exotic Octopussy — fabulous owner of an international circus and co¬conspirator in a scandalous jewel smuggling scheme. Treated like a princess, she lives in an island palace, protected by a band of magnificent female bodyguards and relaxes on an incredible love barge, “manned” by gorgeous galley girls.This woman travels first class, no doubt about it!
This is the second trip into unknown danger and dark desire for the stately Swedish beauty. She first met Bond as the girlfriend of the evil killer-for-hire Scaramanga, The Man with the Golden Gun, in 1974.
Not only does Adams enjoy the title role in Octopussy,she is the first person to make a reappearance in a starring role, other than 007 himself, since the big-screen series began in 1962 with Dr. No.How,did,this happen?
“Strangely enough,” says Adams with a subtle smile, “I have recently been speculating on that very subject. Being in the right place at the right time ... I guess. When I performed in my first film, it was very much a minor role in a minor movie [opposite Beau Bridges in the little-known The Christian Licorice Store]."
This role did not enhance her cinematic career.
“In fact, it was Cubby Broccoli who really discovered me—or so he’ll tell you ,” she adds with a lovely sparkle in her eyes. “Cubby first noticed me in the early ’70s, and when casting The Man with the Golden Gun, was convinced that I was perfect for the part of Andrea. Ever since then, he has closely followed my career, and it’s partly thanks to him that I’ve done so well in the past few years. He had commented once that he wanted to bring me back, as a totally different character ,of course .When the Octopussy script was submitted, he was heard to declare. That part is perfect for Maud!”’
Adams agrees with Broccoli’s assessment. She had a great deal of fun playing Octopussy.
“Yes, she’s a wonderfully extravagant character; a fascinating woman involved in anything around her. Octopussy is a very active person and enjoys sword fights or climbing walls,” Adams explains. “But I’m afraid she doesn’t get a chance to drive any fast cars. Her greatest claim to fame, from the point-of-view of transportation, is a huge love barge which she can sail up and down the river.”
Fast cars or not, this film has more action per scene than a documentary chronicling the Apollo space program. Adams describes a typical sequence.
“Octopussy has just gotten to know James Bond, and, although they argue, they finally end up in bed together. During the night, they are awakened by three bandits who break into the bedroom and attack Bond — attempting to kill him. He battles ferociously, valiantly, but ends up falling out of the window into the lake. Octopussy is heartbroken because she believes he’s dead.”
Adams enjoyed working with co-star Roger Moore.
“Roger is sensational,” she says. “He is great fun, always managing to keep everyone cast and crew in such high spirits. He excels joking around the-set ,and it certainly helps to break the ice and make things easier on occasion. Director John Glen is a wonderfully calm person, always in control. He’s a man who never loses his temper. The advantage of having him as director is that he knows exactly the shots he needs because of his early career as a film editor.”
And what kind of acting work will the elegantly graceful actress seek in the future?
“I know what I would like to do,” she says. “I would love, for example, the chance to work with Richard Attenborough. I’ve recently seen Gandhi and thought it was terrific. It’s an extraordinary achievement. And I would certainly like to work with some of the great Swedish directors. I also want to play comedy.”
But what about another encore appearance in the James Bond series?
“I would love to,” say Maud Adams. Then, she adds, pragmatically, “But I don’t really think they would ask me back again.'
END OF INTERVIEW
As much as I like Maud, I feel it was a big mistake to cast her again in a prominent role after TMWTGG. And she may well be overstating her acting ability in wanting to be directed by Richard Attenborough and some great Swedish directors, (presumably Ingmar Bergman was on the list?).
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Interview with Roger Moore in NYT with Maureen Dowd - 26 May 1985
James Bond's hotel room at the Pierre is something of a disappointment. There are no beautiful women with funny names sprawled on the bed. No frosty vodka martinis, stirred or shaken, on the coffee table. And, alas, no Doctor No. There is only a polite, middle-aged British gentleman offering a chair and a glass of Perrier. It is hard to get used to Roger Moore without the usual archvillains and glamorous accouterments.
He seems so alone, so vulnerable, so ready for some really tough questions. But, like his celluloid counterpart, the 57-year-old actor who stars in the 14th Bond movie by the producer Albert (Cubby) Broccoli, ''A View to a Kill,'' is urbane and unflappable.
He is certainly not ruffled by the recent newspaper interview with Pierce Brosnan, star of television's ''Remington Steele,'' saying he likes the notion of being Mr. Moore's successor as Secret Agent 007.
''He'd be splendid, I'm quite sure,'' says Mr. Moore, raising his right eyebrow ever so slightly to indicate that he has no intention of turning over the role that has made him a multimillionaire - yet. The Moore eyebrows, fabled for their expressiveness, often lift when the always courteous actor is curbing his wry wit.
He is equally unfazed by a question about whether he frets about aging. ''I don't worry,'' he says. ''That's why I'm Dorian Gray.''
Did he feel threatened by the comeback of Sean Connery two years ago in a rival Bond film portraying the agent as more human and less a cardboard superhero?
''I think the director, not being English, didn't understand what was happening in development of characters in terms of what is English and what is not English. Sean deserved better than that.'' Mr. Moore says that he and his friend Mr. Connery had dinner several times to compare notes about their respective stunts and villains.
It begins to dawn on one that it may be impossible to pierce this aura of ageless cool. He sits calmly, looking altogether perfect, from his golden tan to his gleaming Gucci loafers.
''Don't you get bored doing this role over and over?'' he was asked.
''Certainly not,'' Mr. Moore replies smoothly. ''You can't be bored. You're up there being somebody else. You're James Bond.''
Certainly there must have been some clashes with Grace Jones, the striking rock singer and New York night club personality who plays the villainess, May Day. She is clearly Mr. Moore's temperamental opposite.
His eyebrow lifts sharply. A good sign.
''Occasionally,'' he confides, ''I would have to unplug her cassette recorder. Such loud music. And that mad, hysterical laughter. Oh, I suppose she was a bit nervous of me because she was giving the odd interview where she was trying to point out that Hans, her boyfriend, would be far more suited to playing the role than myself. So presumably she was waiting for the day to arrive when I would read it and throw an ax at her.''
''I didn't,'' he hastens to assure, smiling. ''But I had that as a sword of Damocles to hold over her head.''
Unlike Mr. Connery, who used to complain about being ''bottled in Bond,'' Mr. Moore says he has suffered no personal or professional identity crisis by associating himself for such a long time with such a popular role.
Asked how he views the role, he says simply: ''I see it the way that Cubby Broccoli wants to see it. He is the fellow in charge, and I'm not going to make waves.''
When he first took over as James Bond in 1973, in ''Live and Let Die,'' he tried to change some characteristics to make the role his own. For instance, he points out, his Bond never orders vodka martinis, as Mr. Connery's did, although over the years other characters have begun ordering them for him.
Mr. Moore, the son of a London policeman, plays the role with more accent on camp and less on sex than Mr. Connery did, and he tries to ''get the fun out of it, let the audience know that if they want to scream hysterically, they can.''
''My attitude is that it's completely unreal,'' he says. ''Here you've got this secret agent who's recognized by every barman in the world and they know that he takes his vodka martinis shaken and not stirred. It's crazy. What sort of secret agent is that? So you know that it is a spoof already before you start.
''I don't like to play him as a true-blue hero,'' he continues. ''There's always a moment of doubt in Bond's mind. I mean, if I save the girl, I may get killed doing it. So I always let that go through my mind and then say, 'Oh, to hell with it, I've read the script. I know I'm going to live.' ''
He enjoys that communion of camp with the audience. Praising Christopher Walken's performance as Max Zorin - a mysterious industrialist who intends to make a killing on the world microchip market by causing an earthquake in California's Silicon Valley - Mr. Moore says he especially loved Mr. Walken's hysterical laugh when he plunges to his death at the end of the movie. ''He knew he'd be back and going to see it at the premiere,'' Mr. Moore says.
And he revels in the immutable Bond universe of good and evil. He recalls a love scene early in the movie with Grace Jones, who, according to the movie's production notes, ''commits herself to murder and love-making with equal amounts of passion.''
'If they get in between the sheets with Bond in the first two reels,'' Mr. Moore explains, ''then you know they'll have to pay for their sins. There's a little justice being meted out by Cubby Broccoli.''
The predictability, he says, is what the audience likes. ''It's exactly the same as a child wanting to hear a bedtime story and if you change a word or leave out a few lines because you think he's fallen asleep or you're bored and you want to get off to bed yourself, look out. We want the comfort of the sameness.''
The biggest change in Bond has been the costly cinematic ''can you top this?'' game the producers play with the opening titles and the stunts. Mr. Moore points out that the opening sequence of ''A View to a Kill,'' an acrobatic and aerial ski shootout on a glacier, cost $1.5 million - half a million more than the entire budget of the first Bond movie, ''Doctor No,'' in 1962.
Asked about the diminishing sex scenes, Mr. Moore says, ''There's always been less sex in Bond than people think there is. Cubby said years ago that Bond was sadism for the family. The notion of sexuality in Bond stems from Ursula Andress coming out of the water in 'Dr. No' wearing a bikini which by today's standards would be a golfing outfit. Sex in Bond is suggested but never suggestive.''
Doing love scenes with the world's most exotic women, he says, is an overrated pastime. ''They always pick the coldest day of the year,'' he says, ''and usually a Monday morning when the studio's been shut all weekend, and the heat's been turned off, so you're freezing cold. And you've got 60 to a hundred people standing around and electricians up on the rail staring down. There's very little romance. If you can get really excited about doing that, you should be starring in blue movies.''
Mr. Moore says he has no ambitions to play such roles as Hamlet or Lear. ''But I wouldn't mind playing Richard,'' he jokes, curling his lithe body into a humpback. He says that he played a ''loser'' in a movie he did between the last two Bond films, which has been put in limbo, pending a distribution fight, but that he has to be careful not to stray too far from his heroic image.
He never worries about the role going stale. ''I don't have to hype myself up,'' he says. ''It's not like sort of being a singer and having to stretch your vocal cords in the dressing room before you go on so that you can reach a high C. If I haven't learned the lines, then I make 'em up.''
While Mr. Moore likes to project a blase attitude, it is clear as he talks that he regards each new Bond as a challenge and works hard to bring fresh touches.
''Acting is like playing tennis, a line or a ball is served and hopefully you don't double-fault. Sometimes you work with people and it's rather like playing squash against an absorbent wall. That ball is not bouncing back at you. Then you have to play around with it. You have to invent other things.''
If he does tire of Bond one day and pass the role along to someone else, what traits will his successor need?
''Well, you have to be prepared to get up early and say your lines and not trip over the furniture,'' says Mr. Moore, his eyebrow starting to rise. ''And you have to be prepared to answer questions with a smile on your face when you're asked how your Bond compares to Roger Moore's.''
END OF INTERVIEW
Roger is in unflappable form here, lots of good stuff including Brosnan, Connery, Jones.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,746Chief of Staff
Lovely stuff from Roger…the man, in interviews, truly was a saint ☺️
I like the comment from the interviewer that Moore projects a blase attitude - IMO I think by AVTAK that had eked into his attitude towards acting as well.
Interview with Tanya Roberts in the official A View To A Kill magazine (1985)
“Starring in A View to o Kill has been the most significant step in my career to date.” That's how Bronx born Tanya Roberts sees her role as the latest in the long and lovely line of Bond Women, But, she notes, Stacey Sutton is a Bond beauty with a difference.
"The character is integral to the plot and Stacey is very involved with Bond's determined destruction of the evil Max Zorin— played by Christopher Walken” Roberts explains, "Stacey is from a well-to-do background and has a degree in geology, so she is no dumb blonde. Stacey is not just a pretty girl on Bond's arm. She's very strong, bright and independent. She's totally on her own—her father and grandfather are both dead. It's a really good character, an important role in moving the story on, and something different than I've played before, so I thought it would be a good experience.”
Despite a career in television and films focused on action-adventure and science fiction-fantasy, Roberts actually began on the stage at age 16, appearing in Off Broadway productions of Picnic , Antigone and Liham. In 1980, she decided to try her luck in Hollywood, and was promptly cast as one of Charlie's Angels.
Her role as an angelic defective was supposed to be her big break , although Roberts doesn't necessarily see it that way, "All the other girls who had been on the show were from television, and destined to remain in that medium forever,” she says. "I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in TV, so I wasn't too dismayed when the series ended before I became stamped as a 'TV actress'—although I am delighted with the fame it gave me and the opportunity to show the world what I had to offer”
Getting out of television seems to have paid off for Roberts. Her big-screen roles include California Dreaming, Tourist Trap , Racquet and The Beastmaster. The latter film, a sword & sorcery fantasy, nailed down her future as a 007 co-star, but first she had to endure the trials of African locations, lensing Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Roberts readily admits that "Sheena wasn't too good.” She elaborates: "Sheena got all screwed up, and in my next film, I'm going to make certain I do something serious, or I’m not going to work in film."
It was her appearance in The Beastmaster that led to her movie mission opposite Roger Moore, Bond series producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli had seen Beastmaster and liked Roberts, As far as the actress was concerned, her casting as Stacey Sutton "just came out of the blue."
Certainly one thing that all of Roberts' major roles have shared is physical action. "I do seem to wind up with a lot of physical work in recent pictures,” she laughs. "I don't know how it happens, but I think movies today are more physical: they all seem to be big adventure stories. That doesn't bother me—-I’m very physically fit. I work out and pump iron everyday, so it's not that difficult. It looks harder than it is."
Given that emphasis on fitness, does Roberts do her own stunts? “If it's dangerous, I won't do it," she states flatly. "In other words, I’m not going to break a leg for anything. I may do some things that people will think That's scary, but I know it's not scary at all. Climbing a tree doesn't worry me too much."
In a stunt situation, what does worry her? The things she can't personally control. "I have to be really certain about a stunt, and I'll check technically to make sure that everything's OK because there's no way I’m going to die for any job," the actress asserts, "But silly little things like falling down or climbing a tree—something I’m doing with my own body—I trust myself, just like anyone else. If I’m in the driver's seat, OK, but if I’m a passenger, I’m concerned. That's the way I deal with stunts,"
Roberts handled several of her own stunts in A View to a Kill , including being lifted in a harness through flames. "But nothing I consider dangerous” she says, coolly.
Careful preparation is important to her as an actress. "When I receive a script," Roberts observes, "I break down the scenes and, in the case of Stacey , I worked on the little idiosyncracies. Quite often, in an adventure film like this one, there isn't time to develop the character fully, so what you have to do is give her superficial bits that make it look like there's more than what the audience sees. I concentrate on manners of speech, the way she walks.”
Though she admits she doesn't like to see herself on any screen, Roberts still notes, "I go and check the dailies for technical reasons: to make sure that my makeup's OK, that my voice is OK, that things are falling into place—that my acting is right. But, basically I don't like to see myself on film. No one likes herself on screen, but you have to just grit your teeth and try to be objective."
While starring in a Bond film wasn't one of Tanya Roberts' career goals, she has always been captivated by 007’s spectacular adventures. "I've seen them all," she announces, "But I never thought of being in one—it just didn't cross my mind. I love them, because they're escapism. Still, I think the people who are dreaming about being in movies, like the Bond films, are generally the people who aren't in movies. I’m in show business: I’m very realistic. The people who are really interested and who make it magical are those who aren't in it. People in show business realize this life really isn't glamorous. I mean, I was filthy dirty [to do the mine scenes] and getting up at four a.m.—that's hardly glamorous. Fans make you. I certainly hope that people like me in my work, and I appreciate every letter that I get. I'm glad they like me, or I wouldn't be in this business. But for those fans, it's a very different reality than it is for me. They're going to be watching the finished product, which has taken us five months and a lot of hard work, including three days I spent choking on smoke. It's not what it looks like in the finished film."
Roberts has nothing but praise for the people she worked with in lensing A View to a Kill. "I had a wonderful time and I think it's the best movie I've ever done," she remarks. "The crew, most of whom had worked on several previous Bonds, has such a family spirit—and the director, John Glen, who set the shooting's pace, was such a very calm, easy-going guy, that there was never any tension on the set."
Though her character's relationship with James Bond starts off a bit rocky in the film, Roberts reports that real life with Roger Moore didn't repeat reel life with his superspy counterpart, "Roger's very consistent and nice and he's always in a good mood, very professional and easy to work with,” she comments, "You might as well be married to the people you're working with in a film; it is a marriage, more or less. You get all kinds of personalities, and it's nice when you get mellow ones like Roger Moore."
Speaking of marriages, Roberts has been wedded to screenwriter Barry Roberts for the past 10 years. Theirs is a solid relationship, helped along by the fact that Barry usually travels to any movie location where Tanya is working, "I will be married forever," she announces, I would rather be sitting at home with Barry than be with any other man in the world." They have become a globe-trotting couple, staying together in A View to a Kill's London, France and San Francisco locations.
Admitting that all her well-known roles have been similar both in age and style to herself, Roberts observes, "When you're young, it's a very difficult mold to break out of. If you look at the careers of people like Faye Dunaway or Jane Fonda, they really didn't accomplish much until they were in their thirties. When you're young and pretty, you get cast in the same sort of roles— and it's a terrible fight to get out of them. You just have to hang in there and do the best you can and, sooner or later, someone is going to throw you something that's very demanding. The trick is to be ready for it when it comes along. What's heart-breaking is when you walk in to meet a producer or director, and you look like me, they don't think, 'Hey! Let's hire her for The Three Faces of Eve or Sybil. Beauty is a stigma that really works against you. Being the leading lady in a Bond film, which has much more of a guarantee of success than any other movie, gives other film-makers the chance to see me doing something different—a little comedy, a little drama, a lot of action," she points out. “The role is not a tremendous stretch as an actress, obviously, but it keeps you in their minds. I hope they see me in the film and perhaps consider me for something of significance. It's very important to be seen and it's very important for an actor to act. An artist can paint a picture, just sit down and paint; a sax player can blow; a pianist can play. But what can an actor do—sit down and recite a soliloquy? It just doesn't work that way. You must work. At this point. I've turned down several things because I feel they aren't going to lead me in the right way. I desperately want to work—I'm a workaholic. It's the only way to improve.”
"Starring in A View to a Kill is a very big step, a very big break, because everyone sees a James Bond movie,” Tanya Roberts concludes. “ What is of paramount importance is the next role I play. Selecting my next movie is the thing I must give full concentration to doing. It is the next role that will cement my career as an actress!"
END OF INTERVIEW
Well, Tanya’s career sort of petered out after this and no major roles came her way and she ended up back on television. She did remain married to her husband up to his death. Tanya died in January 2021. I do find her very egocentric in this interview, maybe she should have taken more notice of how Roger Moore handled interviews.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
she may say her characters "no dumb blonde", and this is true: her characters a professional geologist and delivers exposition important to the plot. But I gotta say, I was more convinced with her character in That 70s Show , she was hilarious in that role. "is this based on a true story?"
Interview with Denise Richards in TWINE Official Magazine (1999)
Times have changed quite a bit for James Bond since bikini-clad Ursula Andress emerged from the sea in Dr. No. In the 1990s, 007‘s female counterparts have evolved into more than mere ornaments for the virile spy. GoldenEye, for example, saw the arrival of a new M, only this head of British Secret Service was a hard-edged woman (played by Judi Dench). In Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond met his match in Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), his highkicking counterpart from the Chinese People’s Security Force.
The emergence of strong female characters in the Bond universe continues in The World Is Not Enough, with not one but two powerful women: heiress Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) and nuclear weapons expert Christmas Jones (Denise Richards.) “My character is very strong and sassy,” explains Richards, “and there is a great one-upsmanship between Bond and her, which I love, because it’s like this little back and forth banter between them. She’s very intelligent, so she helps Bond throughout his journey to save the world.”
Richards was delighted to be a part of the 007 phenomenon, but getting to play a capable and intelligent Bond girl was icing on the proverbial cake. Although she didn’t perform any really perilous stunts, Richards did see her share of the action.
“It’s fun,” Richards says, “and it’s great to try and do as much stuff as we can do so that it looks real when they cut everything together. And, it’s easier for them to cut it together if we can do things ourselves. If [my stunt double’s] face shows, they can’t use it. Then it’s easier for the director to make it more believable, so it’s not, ‘Oh, there’s her stunt double!’ ”
Not surprisingly, Richards has no difficulty recalling the most physically challenging sequences from The World Is Not Enough. “It’s the stuff with the submarine,” she reveals. “I had to work with a diver to practice working with a respirator in between takes. I’ve used one before, but never for a job or without a mask. I also had to learn how to take the [respirator] out underwater and then put it back in. I was nervous about doing that, but that’s the fun part of making a Bond film.
“In the submarine sequence, the set is built on four different stages; it’s a huge, elaborate set. They've done such an amazing job, and it’s physical stuff. It’s difficult to work when the set is moving, and I did a little bit of that on Starship Troopers, but this set moves completely at a 90-degree angle. That's the stuff that, even though it doesn’t seem like we're doing much, is the most challenging.”
Working on a film as large and complex as The World Is Not Enough was a major career undertaking for Richards, but she’s quick to point out that the benefits have far outweighed the difficulties. “When I signed up to do this movie, I knew it was going to be six months. It was difficult being away,” she admits, “if I had even four days off, I would fly home, just because I need to have that balance. But I understand that it’s part of the business.
“If I come in and they decide to change a shot and I’m not needed until late afternoon, that’s part of it. That's the hard part, the waiting around, but it’s exciting, too. I get to stay in London. I’ve never done a film in Europe, so it has been a great opportunity for me, and every weekend, my boyfriend [Starship Troopers co-star Patrick Muldoon] flew to London and he and I went to Paris. I’ve never been there, and he hasn’t either, and it’s so convenient to take the train—three hours and you're there. From LA by plane, it would have taken over 10 hours, so it has been a great opportunity.”
A native of suburban Illinois, Richards moved to California after graduating high school in 1989 and went straight into modeling. After assignments in New York, Paris and Tokyo, she decided a career change was in order and began putting her energies into acting. Appearances followed in Melrose Place, Doogie Howser M.D. and the short-lived NBC drama Against the Grain, in which she joined an up-and-coming actor named Ben Affleck. Richards made her feature film debut in 1993’s National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 and went on to do Tammy and the T-Rex, PCH, Lookin’ Italian and Nowhere. Her breakthrough role came in the SF action-adventure epic Starship Troopers, where she played the ambitious space pilot Carmen Ibanez. That led to the controversial thriller Wild Things, where Richards raised a few eyebrows as a scheming high school Lolita, co-starring with Neve Campbell, Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon. This past summer, Richards garnered further attention in the comic mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous, about the behind-the-scenes backstabbing taking place in a small-town Minnesota beauty pageant. Richards plays an over-zealous high school contestant, probably the last teenage part she'll be taking on with her ascension to more mature roles. After wrapping her work as Christmas Jones, she returned to LA to start work on a new romantic comedy with Matt Damon and her former Against the Grain co-star Affleck. With The World Is Not Enough, the actress is somewhat taken aback at the prospect of being a Bond girl for the new Millennium. “I just think about it as doing the movie,” Richards says, “but it’s exciting to be a part of it. My Mom is thrilled, because she saw Goldfinger seven times. She’s so excited I’m doing this, and I am, too. But for myself, it’s just about doing a good job, and however people perceive it, as the Bond woman of the Millennium, that’s fine. Also, what was very appealing about this was working with Michael Apted. He’s such a great director, and an actor’s director, and he brings a nice element to the movie as far as caring about the characters. It’s not just about the action.”
Unlike an FX-based film like Starship Troopers, where the actors were often secondary to computer-generated bugs, The World Is Not Enough is a more characterbased piece, where the actors take precedence over the action and FX sequences. “It's nice,” notes Richards, “because without good characters, sometimes it’s not interesting. You don’t care what happens to them, and you don’t root for them or you're not sad when something happens to them. It’s not that Michael cares more about our performance, as opposed to “that special effect is better let’s use that take”, Michael wants all of us to want to do it.”
The actress also credits her leading man Pierce Brosnan with making the job that much easier, particularly in the first weeks of filming. “I really like him,” she affirms. “I was so excited to get this, but then I was so intimidated walking into it. This is the nineteenth Bond movie, and it’s Pierce’s third [as 007], so it’s intimidating, but he couldnt have been more welcoming, charming and professional.
He knows—having to walk into this stepping into the Bond role—what it’s like, and he makes it very easy to feel comfortable. We hit it off right away. Pierce is great to work with. I’ve been very lucky. It’s [rewarding] to work off a good actor. It’s always good to work with talented actors who are better than you. I find that it helps your performance.” The prospect of working in England for several months wasn’t a thoroughly comfortable one for the Los Angeles-loving Richards, who admits suffering some degree of culture shock early on in the production. “The thing that took me a long time to get used to is the weather. It can be sunny, rainy and snowy in one day. It’s unbelievable, and I love the sunshine, so that was hard. But I love tea-time here—scones and clotted cream. Scones are like a once a month thing, and we don’t see much clotted cream in California.
“Also, I’m away from home,” she adds, “and there are very few Americans on the film—everyone here works, then they go home. I’m renting an apartment here. So it makes it easier when everyone gets along; it’s a nice feeling.”
With her work in The World Is Not Enough finished, Richards admits that it’s still too soon to figure out exactly what she'll take as an actor from the experience. “I learn different things as we go along,” she claims, “and sometimes you don’t know until you’re on your next movie what you take. Six months is a long time, and I learned different things about myself, about working with other actors and the director. Every actor learns something on every movie. Every movie is a stepping stone, and Bond is great because it’s such an international movie—everyone all over the world loves James Bond. And if you're in a big movie that makes a lot of money, you're afforded more opportunities.
“I just tell people it’s meant to entertain,” she insists. “It’s a fantasy. James Bond is a great guy, he’s a hero and gets all the girls. It should be for audiences to have a good time and like the movie and our characters and believe we're doing what we're doing. It’s for them to be entertained.”
And that just leaves time for three quick questions. Which Bond movie is Denise Richards’ personal favorite? “I would say Goldfinger,” she answers without hesitation. Her favorite Bond girl? That one is tougher. After a moment's pause, “I would have to say, Ursula Andress is probably my favorite.” As for her favorite James Bond, the response is immediate: “I can’t answer that!” A wise response indeed, from one of the Bond girls for a new Millennium.
END OF INTERVIEW
I think Denise Richards comes across as a very nice, grounded person in this interview. I don’t like the Brosnan era, but I do like Denise, and she is very much unfairly criticised by fans.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,746Chief of Staff
Thanks again, CHB...this is an interview I missed at the time…I suppose we are harder on the actors with poorly developed characters, although I’m not sure there is much in Denise’s work that sparkles….I liked Brosnan, but I do feel he was let down with some average scripts 😵💫
Interview with Bruce Feirstein in Tomorrow Never Dies Technical Journal (1997)
Writing these films is like putting together a big puzzie,” says screenwriter Bruce Feirstein of his work on James Bond’s adventures. “You're continually going back and forth and figuring out, ‘We'll put this here, and that there,’ and then you go back in afterwards and sprinkle it with toys.”
Tomorrow Never Dies is Feirstein’s second Bond film, following GoldenEye, for which he did some rewrites. “I had been brought in at the very end of the last film, four months before production, to add some jokes and give Bond some flavor; they didn’t feel that the film had quite come forward into the ’90s.”
While he was doing a final polish on Pierce Brosnan’s debut 007 vehicle, the idea for the next film was born. “When we were finishing GoldenEye,” he explains, “I went to producer Michael Wilson and said, ‘I have an idea for the next film.’ This was in November '94, and I said four words to Michael and Barbara Broccoli. ‘Hong Kong media baron.’ GoldenEye came out in Thanksgiving '95, and in January 1, 1996, I came to London and Michael and I began beating out the parameters of this story.
“I started out as a journalist” adds Feirstein of the story’s inspiration. “So, the film started with one sentence, where Carver looks at Bond and says, ‘We're both men of action, Mr. Bond, but your era is passing. Words are the new weapons, satellites are the new artillery.
“I went away and wrote from March to August, turning in my first draft in August. Roger Spottiswoode came on board as director in September or October. Now, all big action films have multiple writers, so as these things go all the time, other people added other things, then I was brought back to do the final script, the one we're shooting.” Feirstein is matter-of-fact when discussing the subject of different writers working on a script. “As a screenwriter, the first draft is your baby and that’s it, but if you want to work in this business, you know that the script gets handed off and it becomes the director’s vision. There is a trade-off that goes on and you understand that. Big changes are made. But when I was brought back, I made it very simple: I'm not Pierce’s writer; I’m not Michael’s writer; I am the writer of the film. It’s not about fighting for what I want. It's like your kid grows up and goes away. At that point, you're the film’s writer, so you just turn around and make the movie possible. Film is really a collaborative medium, and you absolutely cannot say, ‘I want it my way!’
“As the writer, you are servicing 100 different requirements; it comes down to locations, actors, the director’s vision. There was a terrific precredits sequence originally written for this film, one of the first things I wrote, and it involved an ice climb. I loved it; I adored it, but the simple truth is, the stuntman looked at it and said, ‘This is far too dangerous.’ The film was going to begin with Bond climbing this ice fall somewhere in Norway, but we couldn’t do it. As a grown-up, you can’t pout. You just have to say that your job is to help the production. The first draft is the ego draft, but sometimes you have to put that aside.”
The many different colored pages of Feirstein’s shooting script are clear testament to the number of changes a Bond story must undergo during production, sometimes right up to the last minute. The reasons for those changes are varied and complex, especially for such an internationally successful franchise as James Bond. “You're very cognizant of writing for the world. I had talked to Michael at one point about doing a sequence in Vietnam, and that was an element of intrigue for America.
“In one of the scenes we were just shooting, Bond is in a helicopter with Wai Lin and he’s looking at Carver's building. There were two versions of it. In one version, she says, ‘It looks like Carver is throwing another party,’ and it’s this big building with the banner and he says, ‘I think this time, it’s for us.’ The other one was, ‘Another Carver building; If I didn’t know better, I would say the man has an edifice complex!’ We did both of them, but one was better for the international market. We do films for the world. In GoldenEye, there’s a line when Bond comes out of the helicopter and he says, ‘The things we do for frequent flyer mileage.’ I kept arguing for that, even though I knew it would only play in America. These films are enormously collaborative, and the two producers are in with me all the time, and sometimes it’s brutal in a good way. On the last film, I went through 30 drafts of ‘You're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur.’ ”
An additional pressure on Feirstein while writing Tomorrow Never Dies was not having the excitement of a brand new Bond for this film. That meant finding different and imaginative ways of attracting moviegoers this time around. “Before the last one, they had a six-year hiatus, and there was a tremendous novelty in having a new Bond, and the film delivered.
“In this one, Pierce very much wanted to peel away the layers of the character. I wanted to see old girl friends; that was something that intrigued me, because I wanted to write a line where a woman looks at him and says, ‘Not this time; I am not ending up on another raft with you in the middle of the Seychelles Islands!’ That went through so many variations; at one point, Moneypenny looks over her shoulder and says, ‘Didn’t you end up on a raft with that woman, in the middle of the Seychelles Islands?’ Paris [the Teri Hatcher character] was in the first draft, and she has changed for the better, with input from Roger and everyone. I was always intrigued and I know Pierce was intrigued about his ‘character.’ The thing about Bond is he’s human. I love the character only because, like everyone else, I was one of those little boys who went to see Goldfinger and you see Goldfinger and it’s about the car, the naked girl painted gold and Oddjob.
“Anyway, about peeling back the layers of the character, that’s when it started to come together. Pierce very much wanted to play a [character-revealing] scene like that, and I very much wanted to see that scene. Carver comes into it this way: What is the scariest thing today? I thought the scariest, most believable maniac would be a huge, world-dominating media mogul. There’s a small homage to Citizen Kane, where Carver says, ‘Thus, I offer my declaration of principles to the world.’ That's where Carver comes from.”
One of Feirstein’s most important achievements on Tomorrow Never Dies is creating a compelling and well-developed villain in the guise of media giant Elliot Carver. The writer gives a large part of the credit to actor Jonathan Pryce; the two worked very closely in developing and refining Carver into a threedimensional creation. “I had worked for New York Magazine, TV Guide and Fox, so I had actually seen some of these media moguls, even though Carver isn’t based on any of them. You pick and choose; it’s not based on anyone in particular. “There was also a language I wanted to use for him, which is a military language. I wanted him to be very formal and for everyone to refer to him as ‘Mr.’ And I wanted almost a one-word exclamation: ‘Excellent!’ ‘Outstanding!’ no matter what he said. That came from the military, the way that fighter pilots always talked. It was a fun character to write.”
Another major innovation in Tomorrow never Dies is the creation of Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh. Instead of being yet another sexy but vulnerable Bond girl, Wai Lin is actually Bond's Chinese counterpart. “We had an idea on the last film,” says Feirstein, “that the world has changed and Bond hasn’t, so every scene was about putting Bond in a situation where everything is different: His boss is now a woman, the KGB agent is now an arms dealer, his ex-partner has now gone over and is an enemy spy, the woman is a computer programmer and is beautiful and smart, and we begin to talk about his life.
“There's a line that got cut in GoldenEye, which is about how a license to kill is also a certificate to die, but it was too purple so we took it out. There is a scene on the beach with Izabella Scorupco [who plays Natalya], where he says a license to kill is ‘what keeps me alive.”
That sets a platform for the next movie. Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp was incredibly perverse in GoldenEye, so this time, we gave him an old girl friend, and also someone female who's every bit Bond’s equal.”
Feirstein is delighted with the way that Tomorrow Never Dies is turning out. “The motorcycle chase is fabulous,” he enthuses. “I look outside and see that construction we're using to jump the motorcycle over the helicopter, and I shake my head and think, ‘What have I done?’
“You look at the Carver stuff, the opening credit sequence, the gag with the plane—in the first draft, the plane came in overhead and Bond shot it down, but technically we found out it wasn’t possible, and I look at the scene now and say, ‘What was I thinking?’ A year ago, I wrote that Carver would have a large circular media center, and I walk in and can’t believe it’s there, or in that level of detail. When we shot in the recording studio, there was a phone book down there, and it was a Hamburg phone book. Somebody actually went and got a Hamburg phone book! That's a weird thing, when you walk around and see that kind of detail.”
In the end, one of the biggest thrills of writing a James Bond film is just that: putting words into the mouth of the world’s greatest secret agent. “I know what it’s like to sit there and type the word ‘Bond,’ ” says Bruce Feirstein, “and of course you come to the sentence where you say, ‘The name is Bond, James Bond,’ and then you say, ‘A martini, shaken, not stirred.’ You write that and you think lan Fleming and screenwriter Richard Maibaum are looking over your shoulder. Every time I get stuck, I wonder what would Maibaum do? If you read the books, there’s no humor in them. The humor comes from Maibaum, he and ‘Cubby’ Broccoli were the geniuses, and in GoldenEye, I think I came close two or three times, but Maibaum was in a league of his own.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for Pierce to walk around and be James Bond, especially here in England, where it’s all-pervasive. The first time I wrote the draft for this movie, I remember typing the line, ‘This is James Bond, British secret service agent 007,’ and then I walked around London thinking, ‘I’m writing James Bond!’ ”
END OF INTERVIEW
A very interesting interview - I’m not a fan of the Brosnan era but TND is by far the best of the bunch of his reign, it has a proper old-style Bond villain and plot, and ranks higher than four of Roger Moore entries.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
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Interview with Michael Lonsdale in Cinefantastique Spring 1979 by Frederic Albert Levy
MOONRAKER is the new James Bond thriller, which began filming last August 14, on Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Venice and Guatemala locations for producer Albert Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert. Roger Moore will return to play James Bond, as will 007’s deadly arch-enemy from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, “Jaws.” played by Richard Kiel. Screenwriter Christopher Wood has taken liberties with Ian Fleming’s original title and characters (the story was one of the first Bond properties optioned for filming back in the early sixties, and was almost made after FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE). Sir Hugo Drax, the villain of MOONRAKER, was described in the book as a former Nazi passing himself off as an Englishman, with a reconstituted face (the tragic result of unsuccessful plastic surgery) covered in grotesque red hair. Drax will in fact be portrayed by distinguished French actor Michael Lonsdale with a simple black beard and foreign accent, a far cry from the repulsive Drax of Fleming’s original novel.
Lonsdale does not seem to share the quasi-religious faith that producer Albert Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert have in the successful nature of the Bond films. But at the same time Lonsdale feels no contempt for the enterprise. During the interview, he didn’t seem too over-impressed by his “new power” as Bond’s arch¬enemy. His most famous international role was as Commissaire Lebel in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. His other film roles have been limited to European productions little-known in the United States.
We spoke with Lonsdale on the Paris sets of MOONRAKER in late November, while shooting was still in progress. The film is expected to be released by United Artists in July.
CF: Had you been interested in the Bond series before MOONRAKER?
ML: I saw the first three Bond films, but I did not find them amusing. But when I was proposed the part of Drax, I wanted to update my Bondian knowledge, and was very surprised at THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. I thought it was very good.
CF: Could you tell briefly the story of the film?
ML: James Bond is confronted with the case of a certain Dr. Drax, a billionaire who, just like Hitler, wants to select a super-race of men, pure and beautiful, and take them to a planet, have them reproduce there, and in the meantime destroy all that is on this planet Earth - to afterwards bring back here his new perfect human race.
CF: This has very little to do with Moonraker, the novel.
ML: As far as Drax is concerned, the film script is much simpler. Drax is not English in the film - he is just presented as a “foreigner.”
CF: Do you pay attention to the technical aspects of the film?
ML: Oh yes. I was literally moved when I saw Ken Adam’s set for the satellite control room. That was really something! There was magic about it, something fantastic.
CF: You are working with an international crew on MOONRAKER. Does that create a particular atmosphere?
ML: There is no difference, really. Although half the crew is French, including the director of photography Jean Tournier, who replaced an ill Claude Renoir, the whole thing is essentially British.
CF: If, as a spectator, you are interested in the lavish sets, aren't you afraid, as an actor, they might do you harm?
ML: Yes, but every part you play is a risk to take. It can be good or bad for you. But I really have a good time, because I was used to filming in cramped rooms with dingy cameras. The English know how to save the actor from bothering about any technical question. As for my part as such, I was somewhat surprised when Lewis Gilbert told me, “the villain is the villain;” Lewis thinks in Shakesperean terms. When people go to see a James Bond film, they go to see certain elements. After ten films, they don’t want to be confronted with a psychological drama, or something they would normally see in another film— they come to see a James Bond film. But I think there is more to it. In MOONRAKER, the villain Drax represents a whole catagory of paranoid and crazy people, those who believe there is some purity to be kept in this world. For me it’s a change from the minister and president roles I’d been playing for so long. But I will be too pleased to shave off this cruel beard.
CF: Does Drax have any ruthless henchmen?
ML: Of course! I have a Japanese servant, but Bond wipes him out very quickly. When I want a replacement, somebody suggests “Jaws,” and I accept right away.
CF: You are fairly tall, but you have to look up when you talk to Richard Kiel?
ML: Richard Kiel is a very nice guy. He’s a math teacher in California. He is an example of of how the cinema can change somebody’s life. You couldn’t say he is a good actor, but he’s got presence, which is the essential thing.
CF: I had thought "Jaws" came back in this film as a "good guy. "
ML: He becomes a good guy at the end of the film. Bond makes him realize that there will be no place for him in the world conceived by Drax.
CF: How does Drax die?
ML: He is shot by one of those special Bond darts and thrown out of the satellite.
CF: What is your relationship with Lewis Gilbert? Can he pay much attention to the actors, if he is already busy with technical problems?
ML You know, that question reminds me of the time I worked with Joseph Losey. A couple of times I asked him, “How would you like me to play this part?” but he looked so frightened, and I understood I should not ask him such a question, because he had no idea of what the answer was. As for Lewis, some of that applies since he is working almost totally in relation to the film’s technology and set decor. At one point, I suggested to Lewis that I should stand up and get closer to a big globe on the set. And Lewis just said, “Yes, good idea, if you want to do it that way.” One scene in the film shows a gondola flying across Piazza San Marco in Venice. Lewis knows his job, and there are very few ways to shoot a scene like that. We actors have to add something amusing here and there. Lewis asked me to be more of a smiling Drax. I personally would have played the character as more severe, but Lewis pointed out that Drax is a happy character, content with what he’s doing.
CF: And about Bond, the character?
ML: “Mr. Bond, you reappear with the inevitability of an unloved season” is one of the niceties I tell him. The dialogues are fairly short and direct. Roger Moore is a very nice person. I didn’t know him well, but he came to me one day to congratulate me on my performance in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. Originally, he was to have played the jackal, by the way. I think he is one of the rare actors who can afford to do Bond and then do something else. He’s got humor, and always shows that he does not take the part too seriously.
CF: How were you chosen to play Drax ?
ML: An important casting director in France, Margot Capelier, suggested me for the Drax role. And perhaps Roger Moore had me in mind from my performance in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. I think James Mason was offered the part first. But he turned it down. Some actors perhaps do not want to participate in James Bond films.
CF: Do you feel there is always a very strong relationship between Bond and his enemy?
ML: Of course. We’re dealing with archetypes. It all depends on what you think is good, and what you think is not. Is the law, is justice good? There is always a good hero and a bad villain. And although this picture is something of a caricature, symbolically, that good/ evil concept is what is in people’s minds. Bond has the license to destroy, the license to kill, which is one of the great unconscious factors of mankind, killing in the name of Justice. A James Bond film is, I think, seen by one person out of four on earth. The films do not pretend to bring any revolutionary ideas to the cinema, but they are “entertainment.” And they are based on certains notions fundamental in the world, good and evil. Bond is just Judex with another name, or Zorro. He is defender of the Law. I do have a concealed violence, which I’m afraid of, and which I get rid of in parts I play; it really does me good. For even all those people who don’t like violence might be secretly violent. My life as an actor certainly helped me acquire some balance. I think that any artistic activity derives from a need to give the world a new, satisfying balance.
END OF INTERVIEW
While it’s good to see someone not toeing the company line in an interview, I do feel that Lonsdale is up his own backside in some of the stuff he says. Meanwhile, once again, Ken Adam’s sets are praised, concurring that these are the real stars of the movie.
He also says a number of spoilers. Agree re Ken Adam, of course.
It's been known for a long time that James Mason had been at least considered to play Drax if not actually offered the part as Lonsdale suggests above, and while he was an admirable actor I don't think he could have improved on Lonsdale.
Didn't Mason play a Nazi in some Boys of Brazil type film? Thing is, he'd have lacked the surprise factor, and have been too old. With Moore as Bond, it might have had that North by Northwest feel to it, as the two keep running into each other and so on.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Mason gained much acclaim portraying Erwin Rommel in two movies in the 50s-
He'd have been the right age (70) to portray Drax as a former Nazi in 1979, keeping the character closer to Fleming.
Was that the idea then, at one point, to base it more on Fleming's novel to some extent, as least with the Drax character? I prefer Drax in the film as not German, nor with any Nazi links - the series has hardly ever mentioned the Nazis save from Bond on the golf course in GF and the land mines in FYEO, and talk of Kristatos' wartime activities. It's just a bit close to the bone.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
No idea, sorry.
Here's an interesting snippet from an early 1980s edition of Starburst magazine, in which Sean Connery willingly discusses James Bond, in particular the recent For Your Eyes Only, and the chances of his returning to the role. Like on of those interviews where John Lennon doesn't outwardly reject reforming the Beatles, you felt that of course if Connery did return to the role, he's absolutely knock it out the park, especially given the wisdom of the comments below...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Interview with Vic Armstrong - by Alan Jones - Cinefantastique December 1999.
Although Michael Apted was at the helm of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, as so many have before him in the same position, he turned to his second unit director Vic Armstrong to insure the action sequences were the best they could possibly be. The first James Bond adventure stunt man Victor M. Armstrong worked on was YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE back in 1967 and his special touch has since graced ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, LIVE AND LET DIE, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and TOMORROW NEVER DIES.
Armstrong's name is alway somewhere on the credit of the best action movies. From TOTAL RECALL and THE PHANTOM to STARSHIP TROOPERS and ENTRAPMENT, Armstrong professed to a love/hate relationship with the industry he's so much a part of because of the arduous challenges he faces on a daily basis. “The hardest part of my job is trying to be original," he said. "You rack your brains for bigger and better stunts because the one person you can't cheat is yourself. I know what I've done before on other movies and I strive to be different each time. You have no idea how tough that is.”
Nevertheless, Armstrong has faced the gruelling task of bringing Bond into the 21st century with THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and credits his close relationship with Michael Apted for that. "Our collaboration has been marvellous and has worked like a dream. I advise him on what looks good within a scene - the little nuances in the physical performances that count - while he tells me what quirks he wants me to include in mine. I hate second unit directing, in truth. I much prefer directing proper. I directed ARMY OF ONE in 1993 and an episode of THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES. The latter featured no stunts because producer George Lucas thought that would be amusing. But if you are going to do a second unit job you might as well work with the best like Apted and Pierce Brosnan. Pierce is fantastic and his dry sense of Irish humor really makes everything go with a sparkle. I sometimes never know if he's joking or not."
Armstrong's work on THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH has mainly split into four basic action sequences. "The first is the boat chase down the River Thames in London," he recounted. "The second is the ski chase in the French Alps. The third is the battle on the walkways of Zukovsky's caviar factory in Azerbaijan. The fourth, which we are sharing half and half with the main unit, is the Russian submarine sinking vertically into the Caspian Sea. The latter has taken us to the Bosphorous and back to Pinewood and includes the submarine tilting, diving and flooding, the fight in the reactor room between Bond, Renard and Christmas, Bond 's escape, and then the whole thing blowing up..,”
Armstrong said the Thames boat chase was the most difficult stunt sequence of all. The chase takes in many London tourist sights - the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and Docklands -as tuxedoed 007 pursues the mysterious Cigar Girl at 60 mph in a Bentz boat. "Working on water is always hard and time consuming," said Armstrong. "We had a 25-foot tide level to consider and we had to change all the moorings in the afternoons when the water ran in reverse. We photographed the entire sequence with an armada of 35 boats and also used a flying camera from Belgium so we could dive under the bridges along the Thames. We shot for seven days on the river itself and then moved to Docklands so we wouldn't have to contend with the tidal problems. That's where we filmed the jet-powered boat leaping out of the water and zooming along the roads through an East End market. We had warned all the workers on the Thames and the only ones who complained were Members of Parliament in the Houses of Parliament. Typical! The people we are paying to be there and who were going to earn revenue off the film were the only ones to register complaints."
The ski sequence was shot in the French Alps during avalanche season and, in fact one of the worst bits while the movie was there. " It was tough to keep going when you knew some of the people whose lives were lost," he said. "Working on snow is so scary because you are air-lifting 180 crew members in on helicopters to areas that could shift. We were landing on slopes inches away from a complete vertical drop. One gust of wind and it would have been all over. ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE has a great radical skiing sequence in it and to make our's different, we used these great devices called parahawks - a sort of cross between a parachute and a motorized glider which you steer to land and take-off. Despite the problems such a sequence entails, I do prefer shooting on location rather than in the studio because the latter has such a factory feel. You have to rehearse and rehearse on location, of course, and then try and make it all look spontaneous, but I rise to those occasions more than tackling problems in a studio tank.”
But one of Armstrong's studio-set sequences which he thinks is going to be a major highlight is the caviar factory one. "We shot that on the Pinewood backlot on a set that cost over $1 million," he said. " It's a night-time sequence and has two helicopters with circular saws attached to their under-carriage attacking Bond on wooden walkways and cutting up the whole building. The helicopters are actually used to cut trees back from high tension cables and we've adapted them for this thrilling scene."
Although Sophie Marceau did her own skiing in the Alps, Pierce Brosnan turned out not to be that adept at the sport. So Brosnan did most of the boat chase sequence instead. Armstrong added, "We had to be careful, though, as the waves at those speeds were hitting him in the face like sledgehammers. We must never risk our lead actor or put him in a position where he can black his eyes or lose a tooth. But because Pierce wanted to legitimize the sequence as much as he could we used him a great deal more than expected. Sometimes it is better to use stunt men because all they are thinking about is the stunt in question. An actor is worried about that, and looking good, and remembering his lines. Not a good combination."
Working with the same crew he's had on his last five movies, Armstrong feels he's done his job on THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH. "What's the difference between this one and TOMORROW NEVER DIES? We did more traveling to exotic locations on the last. Making the Bond films special is so hard, you know. You want realism within the tongue-in-cheek aspects, yet you can't step outside Bond 's character or that destroys the unique atmosphere. Staying within the Bond rules, yet trying to be fresh and original while he saves the world again is a nightmare."
END OF INTERVIEW
Not cast or crew but close enough, and interesting enough to include in this thread is an interview with continuation author Raymond Benson with Rich Handley in Cinefantastique December 1999:
For four decades moviegoers have thrilled to James Bond's on-screen adventures, reveling in his world of fast cars, faster women, and deadly assassins. Film fans know Bond as a character larger than life, a man who dispatched attackers without spilling his martini, has a witty rejoinder for any situation, and gets any woman be wants. However, readers know a different version of the character. For them, the true James Bond is not the super-hero of Hollywood, but rather the dark, bitter, vice-ridden assassin Ian Fleming created in the 1953 novel Casino Royale.
Fleming's work had a moderate but devoted following, which rose dramatically when John F. Kennedy announced his fascination with the series. In total, he produced 12 novels and nine short stories about Bond, most of which have been filmed by Eon Productions. Upon his death, Kingsley Amis was hired to write a follow-up tale, Colonel Sun, but no other Bond novels appeared until 1981, when John Gardner brought Bond into the '80 with License Renewed. Though some bristled at changes made to Bond's character (Gardner made him younger than his actual age for credibility's sake and borrowed several film elements, the novel met with success and Gardner went on to write 13 more original novels and two film novelizations before retiring in 1996.
Enter Raymond Benson, a West Texas-born composer, writer, and game designer whose encyclopedic James Bond Bedside Companion I widely regarded as the definitive book on the James Bond phenomenon. His role-playing adventure YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE II: BACK OF BEYOND was published by Victory Games as part of the James Bond 007 Role-Playing Games, and he also wrote text-based interactive video games based on GOLDFINGER and A VIEW TO A KILL.
Benson was hired to continue writing the 007 novels in 1996. His first novel, Zero Minus Ten, appeared the following year and was serialised by Playboy, which also published his short story “Blast From The Past” the same year. He rounded out 1997 with the novelization of TOMORROW NEVER DIES. His second original novel, The Facts of Death, appeared in 1998 {also excerpted in Playboy), followed by a second short story, "Midsummer Night's Doom," a third original novel, High Time to a Kill, and the novelization of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, all in 1999.
Benson's original aspirations involved the theater. After graduating in 1978 from the University of Texas at Austin with a BFA in Directing, he moved to New York City and spent several years directing and composing music in the off-off-Broadway and off- Broadway arenas. Noted Benson, "One day, some friends and I were sitting around and the discussion came to ' What sort of book would you write if you had to?' My answer - a book about James Bond mainly because I was so knowledgeable about the subject.,, His father had taken him to see GOLDFINGER when he was nine years old, he said, which "hooked" him on Bond forever. Quickly devouring Fleming's novels by age 11, Benson kept up with "all things Bond on into adulthood. Thus was born the Companion, which took three years to complete, and established him as a Bond expert worldwide.
While writing the book, and during his six years as Vice President of the American James Bond 007 Fan Club, Benson became friendly with Peter Janson-Smith at Glidrose Publications {the copyright holders to the literary Bond) and the Fleming family. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Ian Fleming Foundation, a not-for-profit organization run by Glidrose, the Fleming family, and Bond/ Fleming enthusiasts, which procure , archives, and restores memorabilia associated with Fleming and Bond, their long- term goal to erect a permanent museum. The connections afforded him the chance to take over from Gardner.
Fleming served in the British Navy and was known to have been a womanizer and drinker like his famous super-spy, but Benson calls himself "a normal guy," adding, "I'll be the first to admit that I don't have some of the experiences in life that Ian Fleming had, but I think I'm able to draw upon the spirit and mood that he created and go my own way from there. A good imagination helps, I suppose. An author doesn't have to be an astronaut to write science fiction." To this end, Benson researches all locations appearing in his novels, and says he attempts to recreate the flavor of Fleming's famous restaurant menus, dining sequences, and detailed gambling scenes."I travel to all the locations in my books that I can and experience a lot of stuff that ends up in the books. My wife read Zero Minus Ten and said, 'Wow, it's our trip to Hong Kong and China... only with danger!"'
This is one reason Benson prefers writing original material over writing film novelizations. "They're the author's work, from conception and storyline to the finished product. That's not to say that novelizations can't be fun. I had a blast doing TOMORROW NEVER DIES...the main dif- ference, of course, is that the storyline, the outline,' so to speak, is given." His original work, he says, is much more involved. Glidrose requires an outline for each novel, which he considers extremely useful though he admits it's the most difficult part of the entire process. " My outlines are 15 pages or so of prose-broken out chapter by chapter - describing everything that happens in the book. Coming up with a plot is extremely difficult because so much has already been done!” Once the outline is finished (which takes him two to three months) he travels, researches his locations, and then comes back to write the novel, which he delivers nearly nine months before publication. The entire process lasts about 18 months for each novel.
Benson has a vast canon to draw upon for his books. Preferring not to reference the role-playing game and comics based on James Bond, or the Christopher Wood novelisations of MOONRAKER and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, he finds the 32 novels and story collections more than enough to remember. "It's harder than one would think, even for someone who knows the books fairly well. There are little mistakes here and there- we've all made them. Even Fieming! '
To illustrate, Benson cites The Facts of Death:"I had the head of the MI6 office in Athens as Stuart Thomas, who had been created by Kingsley Amis in Colonel Sun. What I forgot was that Stuart Thomas is ' missing and presumed dead,' a speculation buried somewhere in the last quarter of that book!"
Luckily, Benson has the freedom to pick and choose what to use or ignore from the previous books, so such minor errors are not a big problem. For instance, though Gardner made Bond a Captain in Win, Lose or Die, Benson felt "Commander Bond" sounded better and demoted him again. "There was an explanation somewhere that indicated that Bond's promotion to Captain was only temporary for that assignment," recalled Benson, "but I think it got edited out from wherever it was.
What has been problematic is Bond's age. Fleming’s Bond served in World War II, and yet Benson is supposed to be writing about the same character! Benson (and Gardner before him) chose to deal with this dilemma the same way Eon has in the films -namely to ignore it altogether.' We're dealing with an ageless Bond now...characters like Bond go through time warps as they continue over the years. Superman and Batman have been going since the 30’s!”
Benson considers himself a "purist." preferring Fleming's original novels to the film versions. He would welcome the chance to write a Bond film and grants,'You can’t argue with success. The films are what made Bond the icon he is today, and they're what initially got me into Bond. I love the films, even the ones that are not-so-great."
Whether or not Benson will get to write a James Bond screenplay, he enjoys being Ian Fleming's successor on the novels. He's satisfied with his financial compensation; he's happy having such artistic freedom; he maintains that none of his ideas have been rejected by Glidrose; and he's grateful for the privilege of chronicling the adventures of a character who has fascinated him his whole life. As such, it's no wonder that he plans to continue to write James Bond books. 'As long as they'll have me!"
END OF INTERVIEW
Many thanks, CHB.
AJB's own interview with Mr Benson can be found at https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/51724/ajb-interview-with-raymond-benson#Comment_955610
Apologies, Barbel, I’d completely forgotten about your interview with Raymond Benson which is much better than what’s published above.
No apologies necessary! 🙂
These are interesting, CHB…please keep them coming..👏🏻
There’s a few more waiting in the wings, Sir Miles 🙂
Excellent 👏🏻
It’s good looking back to see what was said/written at the time….
Interview with Cubby from the Moonraker Official Magazine (1979):
Albert R Broccoli is a personal filmaker. Unlike many producers, he is almost always on the set, and is ever-willing to pitch in on menial chores to help his film succeed. Without Broccoli’s drive and faith in the Bond character, the series would not be the legend that it has become.
Born in Astoria, Long Island, Broccoli learned early on the value of hard work. He took a job on his uncle’s farm and, by the age of sixteen, was driving huge truckloads of vegetables to various markets. Shortly thereafter, he began to study journalism at nightschool. Then, on a fateful visit to Hollywood in 1933, he fell in love with the industry. He remained behind, landing his first job in the mailroom at 20th Century Fox. After serving in World War II, he became an actor’s agent, and then a producer. His first film was THE RED BERET in 1952, and was followed by such hits as HELL BELOW ZERO, PARATROOPER, COCKLESHELL HEROES, and others. In 1962 he co-produced DR. NO, and the rest is history.
Though Broccoli travels the world over to shoot his motion pictures, he and his author-wife Dana make their home in California.
This interview with Mr. Broccoli was conducted by Richard Meyers while the producer was in New York promoting MOONRAKER.
Q: As everyone no doubt knows, the James Bond of the movies and the James Bond as written by the late Ian Fleming are totally different. How did you make the transition from printed page to celluloid?
A: Well, actually, these films are not created the way Fleming created his books. We tried to be very astute scholars of the Fleming work. I knew him, after all, and he was a lovely man. So we tried to find out what James Bond was all about. When he died it was a great loss to us — especially because he began to like what we were doing. We tried to roll with and learn from the changes. But even Fleming noted he was running out of enthusiasm doing the books. In fact, in the novel THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, he tried to bring himself to kill off James Bond. We decided, as we went on that changes were necessary. As we continued filming and continued writing screenplays, things developed.
Q: Roger Moore was quoted as saying several years ago that he wanted THE SPY WHO LOVED ME to be his last Bond picture. Then he went ahead with MOONRAKER. Are you gearing up to search for another new James Bond?
A: No, I’m not making any search. If Roger wants to do it, he can. We'll let him do it. But then again, if he doesn’t want to do it we'll find somebody else, only because we're forced to. As we were forced to find somebody to take Sean Connery’s place. We came up with George Lazenby, whose picture was not unsuccessful. It was a very profitable picture (ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE.) I have a feeling it would have been more profitable with someone else starring. Like Sean Connery. But now Roger has filled the gap so nicely we go with him. He’s a bigger money maker worldwide than any of the Bonds. People everywhere have accepted him.
Q: Do you think the character of James Bond has changed even between the last film and MOONRAKER?
A: Yes, I think so. It's changed quite a lot over the years.
Q: How so?
A: Well, going back to the Sean Connery Bond ... it was changed because we did not need the Sean Connery type. Bond, as we saw him was a cool type. I have said this before, but it’s true. Roger plays Bond closer to the image Fleming set in his books. Bond is light-hearted, humorous, a bit nasty, or course, and a bit rough; yet, outside that front there's a lot of humor. I mean, we can laugh with him and at him. We can laugh when a man like Jaws picks him up with one hand and throws him across the room. We might feel sorry too, but we can enjoy seeing him getting the crap kicked out of him. But the best comparison I can think of between the two types of Bond is when you see Dick Powell and Humphrey Bogart play the detective character Philip Marlowe in two movies. Dick Powell played Marlowe (in MURDER MY SWEET) the way Roger played Bond. And Marlowe would be played by Bogart (in THE BIG SLEEP) the way Sean Connery played Bond. They're two different types, you take your pick, you pay your four dollars, and you choose which one you want to see. Or maybe both, they’re both very successful.
Q: Getting on to MOONRAKER, did you consciously attempt to emulate STAR WARS?
A: We didn’t at all. We did these space things because of the natural talent of our crew. I’m speaking of Ken Adam's sets and Derek Meddings who is so good with special effects. The departure from Earth-bound action came because of their talents and because as we went on writing these things we saw Bond in space.
Q: And how did that idea develop?
A: We visited places like Rockwell International and NASA. As we talked to these people, the reality of what they were trying to do took shape. We attended a seminar where all these marvelously talented scientists explained space colonies to us. As all these people told us these things, we began to realize we had a story here. These scientists could put up a station like the one we have in our picture but they don’t have the money. Anyway, I am not a scientist, I’m repeating what I heard like a parrot — and maybe not too well. But basically we worked on the space station idea and developed it into a complete story. It’s not science fiction ... it’s science fact we think. We’re closer to science fact in our approach than science fiction.
Q: Your finished Bond scripts are usually wonderful combinations of humor, action, and romance. It hardly seems the work of one man.
A: Well, we're all involved. I am very much involved. I'd like to think that I’m a very important part of this. I have been from the very beginning with my then-partner Harry Saltzman. We said what we wanted to say. And I’d like to think that I’m still a creative producer. I have the ideas and they have to be written, so we employ writers to do that. I don’t think even the greatest writer in the world can just sit down and write a James Bond story to my liking. They need our discussions. And when I say “‘our,” I mean not mine alone. I mean our director, our executive directors, and many others. There are many who come in only for consultation, and then there’s Ken Adam’s set designs. All are important. That’s the way we are. It isa team that does Bond. It isn’t any one of us.
Q: How great a contribution does a director make in the success of a Bond film?
A: I think a big contribution if he’s good. Lewis Gilbert is good. But he’s a Bond director, you see. I think one has to earn your reputation as a director, or a writer, or even a producer for that matter. Especially on a Bond. You can’t just fit in automatically on your first Bond picture. And I think we all learn a lot every time out. Including Lewis. But the great quality Lewis has is his unflappability. The whole ceiling could be falling down and he’s just talking about a way to overcome it, He never gets nervous, he never throws up his hands and says ‘we're in trouble.’ And sometimes we are in trouble! It’s amazing. Whereas other directors I’ve had on Bond get panicky and don’t know what to do, a director has got to find a way out. Lewis always finds his own way out.
Q: How much do you think the music lends to a Bond movie?
A: Now, I don’t think anybody can score a picture like John Barry for suspense. I mean, with all due respect to Marvin Hamlisch (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME), who I like very much, and George Martin (LIVE AND LET DIE), who I like, there’s a certain thing that Barry gives to a picture just at the right moment that helps the action, helps the suspense, helps the nature of the sequence. Whether it’s a love scene or a fight scene or whatever, there's a thing about Barry. I think he is one of the great cinema composers.
Q: You did a rather incredible thing between THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and MOONRAKER. You pushed the budget up by over ten million dollars!
A: Well, WE didn’t push the budget up. The forces of nature pushed the budget up. The forces of economy, the forces of inflation, and the incredible cost in Europe, France — England for that matter — and wherever we went! All of the prices are rising and yet we won't diminish the quality of the picture.We cannot ever do that. Otherwise we'd stop making them. We can’t do a dirty deal on the audience. After all these years, the Bond syndrome is getting stronger instead of lessening. So now are we going to say ‘we can afford to pull back and give themless quality?’ That ‘no one will know the difference?’ It’s not true. The audience knows. I give them credit for that. Our public knows. They either like us or hate us, but they know the quality’s there.
Q: I heard that the opening sequence called for something like 600 sky dives in order to get everything filmed.
A: Well, I’m not sure how many exactly but it’s in the neighborhood of that to get it all together. I think one man alone took about 80 sky dives. And it’s for real. For reall! When you see a man go out of a plane without a parchute, it’s really a man falling without a parachute. Its interesting, but the Bond audience is always expecting something spectacular. They are saying, ‘okay, do something you didn’t do last time, better than you did last time.’ And that’s very, very difficult.
Q: What would you consider the most difficult thing you did on MOONRAKER?
A: I think all the various flying sequences, down the waterfall, and all that was very difficult to get. We're always under pressure. At one point we were trying to shoot scenes that would match up with shots done previously in Rio when it was 110 degrees, Right in the middle of ‘pick up’ filming, it started to snow. Just needed one bright day and one good town!
Q: Given the hectic shooting schedule, did you have time for the same sort of outlandish fun that has become familiar to Bond sets?
A: Fun? Yes, we have fun, but I can’t think of any terribly amusing things at the moment. We had torrential rain in Rio, snow in London, and the first night we were ready to shoot 500 extras representing the carnival, Rio had the first bus strike in their entire history! We had no way to move these people onto locations.
Q: Think someone was trying to tell you something?
A: If we got in or out of anywhere we were lucky.
Q: So its been quite a challenge all around. Where do you see Bond going now?
A: I don’t know. We've been almost every place under the sun. Under the ocean, over the waves. Well, I’ve no idea.
Q: Was there anything you wanted to put in MOONRAKER you weren’t able to?
A: Yes, there were a lot of things we wanted to put in but we're not going to talk about that because we want to save those things for the next J.B. They're exciting ideas, but putting them in MOONRAKER would have been a bit too much. We don’t like to run too long. Two hours and ten minutes seems to be sufficient.
Q: Putting together any Bond really seems to be a major task. Would it be safe to say that you're fairly obsessed with James Bond?
A: Close. I’m obsessed, if that’s the word, with continuing to make them because there’s a huge public out there wanting to see them made. If I stop making them and they’re still successful, somebody else has to come along and do them. We're already grooming people to take over, so I wouldn't say it’s an obsession with me, really. I’ve been making Bonds for 18 years and I'd love to make something else. I’m planning to.
Q: One thing you can probably admit about the Bonds: no matter how big your budget, you have an exceedingly loyal crew that doesn’t have to stick with Bond time after time, but they keep coming back.
A: They like it and they're the best. And they are directly responsible for the success of the film.
Q: It shows the kind of dedication and the kind of work you get from them. I’ve noticed that the Lewis Gilbert Bonds even look more opulent than others in the series.
A: Well, he spends money (laughter).
Q: Speaking of money, what kind of business do you hope MOONRAKER will do in the United States?
A: I hope it will break even. I hope we do no less than break even.
Q: So you're not the kind of man who plans or plots or harbors hopes?
A: I dare not. I dare not. I hope the public will make up their minds about it. This is the truth; the public is the one who is going to decide the success or failure of the picture. They're not seeing it because they like me, you know. But if they like the picture, you're home free.
Q: On the other side of the coin, do you think critics have been unjustly cruel to Bond films?
A:I have no complaints. People like Bond, people hate Bond. But as long as they go to see it I don't care one Way or the other. Some of them, not all of them I’m sure, get tired of Bond's success. Their attitude seems to be, ‘Oh hell, must we say something about it?’ Or, ‘Just because it survives another bash by the critics, must we be nice to it?’ Well, I don’t know. They do what they think is right.
Q: So basically, you intend to produce Bond as long as the public enjoys it.
A: Yes. Bond will probably continue even if MOONRAKER doesn’t do as well as expected. But, you know, I will find it disheartening if this picture doesn’t please the public tremendously. I will consider myself a very bad judge because I think it’s the best effort we've made so far. I mean, in my view, it’s not only one hell of a good Bond picture, it’s one hell of a picture, period. Even if the hero were named Joe Smith, I think you'll have found it a good film. And I’ve even stuck out my neck like that. It’s just one hell ofa good film..
Q: It must be frightening to consider leaving the security of the 007 series to do other things.
A: Well, it’s a difficult decision, but I’m not abandoning Bond. I'm not tiring of Bond, but I am anxious to do something else, You know, people think I can only do Bond movies. I want to prove I can do something else.
Q: Anything in particular?
A: Oh, no particular thing at the moment. I have four or five different properties.
Q: Then how about the next Bond movie?
A: I haven't planned a thing yet. I don't plan to plan anything. I don’t even want to think about it! Let’s wait until MOONRAKER is out and flying. Then I’ll think about what’s next.
END OF INTERVIEW
I found this an interesting interview - especially the John Barry comments and how the others didn’t match up to him. Personally I think Hamlisch shook things up and because of the score for TSWLM we got the score that we did for MR from Barry who seemed to have got bored with TMWTGG. It’s also interesting how he says that critics don’t bother him yet he issued an injunction both sides of the Atlantic on John Brosnan for the updated book James Bond In The Cinema, it was granted in the UK but dismissed in the USA where it was published.
Thanks CHB. Apart from the Barry comment, the one that struck me was the comparison of two Bond actors to two Marlowe actors, and I believe Cubby's thought was perfectly correct. He's not the first Bond film maker to compare Connery to Bogart (that would be Terence Young, followed later by John Huston) but I'd never heard Sir Rog compared to Dick Powell before!
Interview with Maud Adams in Octopussy Official Magazine 1983
Maud Adams is the exotic Octopussy — fabulous owner of an international circus and co¬conspirator in a scandalous jewel smuggling scheme. Treated like a princess, she lives in an island palace, protected by a band of magnificent female bodyguards and relaxes on an incredible love barge, “manned” by gorgeous galley girls.This woman travels first class, no doubt about it!
This is the second trip into unknown danger and dark desire for the stately Swedish beauty. She first met Bond as the girlfriend of the evil killer-for-hire Scaramanga, The Man with the Golden Gun, in 1974.
Not only does Adams enjoy the title role in Octopussy,she is the first person to make a reappearance in a starring role, other than 007 himself, since the big-screen series began in 1962 with Dr. No.How,did,this happen?
“Strangely enough,” says Adams with a subtle smile, “I have recently been speculating on that very subject. Being in the right place at the right time ... I guess. When I performed in my first film, it was very much a minor role in a minor movie [opposite Beau Bridges in the little-known The Christian Licorice Store]."
This role did not enhance her cinematic career.
“In fact, it was Cubby Broccoli who really discovered me—or so he’ll tell you ,” she adds with a lovely sparkle in her eyes. “Cubby first noticed me in the early ’70s, and when casting The Man with the Golden Gun, was convinced that I was perfect for the part of Andrea. Ever since then, he has closely followed my career, and it’s partly thanks to him that I’ve done so well in the past few years. He had commented once that he wanted to bring me back, as a totally different character ,of course .When the Octopussy script was submitted, he was heard to declare. That part is perfect for Maud!”’
Adams agrees with Broccoli’s assessment. She had a great deal of fun playing Octopussy.
“Yes, she’s a wonderfully extravagant character; a fascinating woman involved in anything around her. Octopussy is a very active person and enjoys sword fights or climbing walls,” Adams explains. “But I’m afraid she doesn’t get a chance to drive any fast cars. Her greatest claim to fame, from the point-of-view of transportation, is a huge love barge which she can sail up and down the river.”
Fast cars or not, this film has more action per scene than a documentary chronicling the Apollo space program. Adams describes a typical sequence.
“Octopussy has just gotten to know James Bond, and, although they argue, they finally end up in bed together. During the night, they are awakened by three bandits who break into the bedroom and attack Bond — attempting to kill him. He battles ferociously, valiantly, but ends up falling out of the window into the lake. Octopussy is heartbroken because she believes he’s dead.”
Adams enjoyed working with co-star Roger Moore.
“Roger is sensational,” she says. “He is great fun, always managing to keep everyone cast and crew in such high spirits. He excels joking around the-set ,and it certainly helps to break the ice and make things easier on occasion. Director John Glen is a wonderfully calm person, always in control. He’s a man who never loses his temper. The advantage of having him as director is that he knows exactly the shots he needs because of his early career as a film editor.”
And what kind of acting work will the elegantly graceful actress seek in the future?
“I know what I would like to do,” she says. “I would love, for example, the chance to work with Richard Attenborough. I’ve recently seen Gandhi and thought it was terrific. It’s an extraordinary achievement. And I would certainly like to work with some of the great Swedish directors. I also want to play comedy.”
But what about another encore appearance in the James Bond series?
“I would love to,” say Maud Adams. Then, she adds, pragmatically, “But I don’t really think they would ask me back again.'
END OF INTERVIEW
As much as I like Maud, I feel it was a big mistake to cast her again in a prominent role after TMWTGG. And she may well be overstating her acting ability in wanting to be directed by Richard Attenborough and some great Swedish directors, (presumably Ingmar Bergman was on the list?).
Interview with Roger Moore in NYT with Maureen Dowd - 26 May 1985
James Bond's hotel room at the Pierre is something of a disappointment. There are no beautiful women with funny names sprawled on the bed. No frosty vodka martinis, stirred or shaken, on the coffee table. And, alas, no Doctor No. There is only a polite, middle-aged British gentleman offering a chair and a glass of Perrier. It is hard to get used to Roger Moore without the usual archvillains and glamorous accouterments.
He seems so alone, so vulnerable, so ready for some really tough questions. But, like his celluloid counterpart, the 57-year-old actor who stars in the 14th Bond movie by the producer Albert (Cubby) Broccoli, ''A View to a Kill,'' is urbane and unflappable.
He is certainly not ruffled by the recent newspaper interview with Pierce Brosnan, star of television's ''Remington Steele,'' saying he likes the notion of being Mr. Moore's successor as Secret Agent 007.
''He'd be splendid, I'm quite sure,'' says Mr. Moore, raising his right eyebrow ever so slightly to indicate that he has no intention of turning over the role that has made him a multimillionaire - yet. The Moore eyebrows, fabled for their expressiveness, often lift when the always courteous actor is curbing his wry wit.
He is equally unfazed by a question about whether he frets about aging. ''I don't worry,'' he says. ''That's why I'm Dorian Gray.''
Did he feel threatened by the comeback of Sean Connery two years ago in a rival Bond film portraying the agent as more human and less a cardboard superhero?
''I think the director, not being English, didn't understand what was happening in development of characters in terms of what is English and what is not English. Sean deserved better than that.'' Mr. Moore says that he and his friend Mr. Connery had dinner several times to compare notes about their respective stunts and villains.
It begins to dawn on one that it may be impossible to pierce this aura of ageless cool. He sits calmly, looking altogether perfect, from his golden tan to his gleaming Gucci loafers.
''Don't you get bored doing this role over and over?'' he was asked.
''Certainly not,'' Mr. Moore replies smoothly. ''You can't be bored. You're up there being somebody else. You're James Bond.''
Certainly there must have been some clashes with Grace Jones, the striking rock singer and New York night club personality who plays the villainess, May Day. She is clearly Mr. Moore's temperamental opposite.
His eyebrow lifts sharply. A good sign.
''Occasionally,'' he confides, ''I would have to unplug her cassette recorder. Such loud music. And that mad, hysterical laughter. Oh, I suppose she was a bit nervous of me because she was giving the odd interview where she was trying to point out that Hans, her boyfriend, would be far more suited to playing the role than myself. So presumably she was waiting for the day to arrive when I would read it and throw an ax at her.''
''I didn't,'' he hastens to assure, smiling. ''But I had that as a sword of Damocles to hold over her head.''
Unlike Mr. Connery, who used to complain about being ''bottled in Bond,'' Mr. Moore says he has suffered no personal or professional identity crisis by associating himself for such a long time with such a popular role.
Asked how he views the role, he says simply: ''I see it the way that Cubby Broccoli wants to see it. He is the fellow in charge, and I'm not going to make waves.''
When he first took over as James Bond in 1973, in ''Live and Let Die,'' he tried to change some characteristics to make the role his own. For instance, he points out, his Bond never orders vodka martinis, as Mr. Connery's did, although over the years other characters have begun ordering them for him.
Mr. Moore, the son of a London policeman, plays the role with more accent on camp and less on sex than Mr. Connery did, and he tries to ''get the fun out of it, let the audience know that if they want to scream hysterically, they can.''
''My attitude is that it's completely unreal,'' he says. ''Here you've got this secret agent who's recognized by every barman in the world and they know that he takes his vodka martinis shaken and not stirred. It's crazy. What sort of secret agent is that? So you know that it is a spoof already before you start.
''I don't like to play him as a true-blue hero,'' he continues. ''There's always a moment of doubt in Bond's mind. I mean, if I save the girl, I may get killed doing it. So I always let that go through my mind and then say, 'Oh, to hell with it, I've read the script. I know I'm going to live.' ''
He enjoys that communion of camp with the audience. Praising Christopher Walken's performance as Max Zorin - a mysterious industrialist who intends to make a killing on the world microchip market by causing an earthquake in California's Silicon Valley - Mr. Moore says he especially loved Mr. Walken's hysterical laugh when he plunges to his death at the end of the movie. ''He knew he'd be back and going to see it at the premiere,'' Mr. Moore says.
And he revels in the immutable Bond universe of good and evil. He recalls a love scene early in the movie with Grace Jones, who, according to the movie's production notes, ''commits herself to murder and love-making with equal amounts of passion.''
'If they get in between the sheets with Bond in the first two reels,'' Mr. Moore explains, ''then you know they'll have to pay for their sins. There's a little justice being meted out by Cubby Broccoli.''
The predictability, he says, is what the audience likes. ''It's exactly the same as a child wanting to hear a bedtime story and if you change a word or leave out a few lines because you think he's fallen asleep or you're bored and you want to get off to bed yourself, look out. We want the comfort of the sameness.''
The biggest change in Bond has been the costly cinematic ''can you top this?'' game the producers play with the opening titles and the stunts. Mr. Moore points out that the opening sequence of ''A View to a Kill,'' an acrobatic and aerial ski shootout on a glacier, cost $1.5 million - half a million more than the entire budget of the first Bond movie, ''Doctor No,'' in 1962.
Asked about the diminishing sex scenes, Mr. Moore says, ''There's always been less sex in Bond than people think there is. Cubby said years ago that Bond was sadism for the family. The notion of sexuality in Bond stems from Ursula Andress coming out of the water in 'Dr. No' wearing a bikini which by today's standards would be a golfing outfit. Sex in Bond is suggested but never suggestive.''
Doing love scenes with the world's most exotic women, he says, is an overrated pastime. ''They always pick the coldest day of the year,'' he says, ''and usually a Monday morning when the studio's been shut all weekend, and the heat's been turned off, so you're freezing cold. And you've got 60 to a hundred people standing around and electricians up on the rail staring down. There's very little romance. If you can get really excited about doing that, you should be starring in blue movies.''
Mr. Moore says he has no ambitions to play such roles as Hamlet or Lear. ''But I wouldn't mind playing Richard,'' he jokes, curling his lithe body into a humpback. He says that he played a ''loser'' in a movie he did between the last two Bond films, which has been put in limbo, pending a distribution fight, but that he has to be careful not to stray too far from his heroic image.
He never worries about the role going stale. ''I don't have to hype myself up,'' he says. ''It's not like sort of being a singer and having to stretch your vocal cords in the dressing room before you go on so that you can reach a high C. If I haven't learned the lines, then I make 'em up.''
While Mr. Moore likes to project a blase attitude, it is clear as he talks that he regards each new Bond as a challenge and works hard to bring fresh touches.
''Acting is like playing tennis, a line or a ball is served and hopefully you don't double-fault. Sometimes you work with people and it's rather like playing squash against an absorbent wall. That ball is not bouncing back at you. Then you have to play around with it. You have to invent other things.''
If he does tire of Bond one day and pass the role along to someone else, what traits will his successor need?
''Well, you have to be prepared to get up early and say your lines and not trip over the furniture,'' says Mr. Moore, his eyebrow starting to rise. ''And you have to be prepared to answer questions with a smile on your face when you're asked how your Bond compares to Roger Moore's.''
END OF INTERVIEW
Roger is in unflappable form here, lots of good stuff including Brosnan, Connery, Jones.
Lovely stuff from Roger…the man, in interviews, truly was a saint ☺️
I like the comment from the interviewer that Moore projects a blase attitude - IMO I think by AVTAK that had eked into his attitude towards acting as well.
An in-depth interview with John Grover, who edited all but one of the '80s Bond films, has recently been uploaded to the 007 Magazine site.
Interview with Tanya Roberts in the official A View To A Kill magazine (1985)
“Starring in A View to o Kill has been the most significant step in my career to date.” That's how Bronx born Tanya Roberts sees her role as the latest in the long and lovely line of Bond Women, But, she notes, Stacey Sutton is a Bond beauty with a difference.
"The character is integral to the plot and Stacey is very involved with Bond's determined destruction of the evil Max Zorin— played by Christopher Walken” Roberts explains, "Stacey is from a well-to-do background and has a degree in geology, so she is no dumb blonde. Stacey is not just a pretty girl on Bond's arm. She's very strong, bright and independent. She's totally on her own—her father and grandfather are both dead. It's a really good character, an important role in moving the story on, and something different than I've played before, so I thought it would be a good experience.”
Despite a career in television and films focused on action-adventure and science fiction-fantasy, Roberts actually began on the stage at age 16, appearing in Off Broadway productions of Picnic , Antigone and Liham. In 1980, she decided to try her luck in Hollywood, and was promptly cast as one of Charlie's Angels.
Her role as an angelic defective was supposed to be her big break , although Roberts doesn't necessarily see it that way, "All the other girls who had been on the show were from television, and destined to remain in that medium forever,” she says. "I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in TV, so I wasn't too dismayed when the series ended before I became stamped as a 'TV actress'—although I am delighted with the fame it gave me and the opportunity to show the world what I had to offer”
Getting out of television seems to have paid off for Roberts. Her big-screen roles include California Dreaming, Tourist Trap , Racquet and The Beastmaster. The latter film, a sword & sorcery fantasy, nailed down her future as a 007 co-star, but first she had to endure the trials of African locations, lensing Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Roberts readily admits that "Sheena wasn't too good.” She elaborates: "Sheena got all screwed up, and in my next film, I'm going to make certain I do something serious, or I’m not going to work in film."
It was her appearance in The Beastmaster that led to her movie mission opposite Roger Moore, Bond series producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli had seen Beastmaster and liked Roberts, As far as the actress was concerned, her casting as Stacey Sutton "just came out of the blue."
Certainly one thing that all of Roberts' major roles have shared is physical action. "I do seem to wind up with a lot of physical work in recent pictures,” she laughs. "I don't know how it happens, but I think movies today are more physical: they all seem to be big adventure stories. That doesn't bother me—-I’m very physically fit. I work out and pump iron everyday, so it's not that difficult. It looks harder than it is."
Given that emphasis on fitness, does Roberts do her own stunts? “If it's dangerous, I won't do it," she states flatly. "In other words, I’m not going to break a leg for anything. I may do some things that people will think That's scary, but I know it's not scary at all. Climbing a tree doesn't worry me too much."
In a stunt situation, what does worry her? The things she can't personally control. "I have to be really certain about a stunt, and I'll check technically to make sure that everything's OK because there's no way I’m going to die for any job," the actress asserts, "But silly little things like falling down or climbing a tree—something I’m doing with my own body—I trust myself, just like anyone else. If I’m in the driver's seat, OK, but if I’m a passenger, I’m concerned. That's the way I deal with stunts,"
Roberts handled several of her own stunts in A View to a Kill , including being lifted in a harness through flames. "But nothing I consider dangerous” she says, coolly.
Careful preparation is important to her as an actress. "When I receive a script," Roberts observes, "I break down the scenes and, in the case of Stacey , I worked on the little idiosyncracies. Quite often, in an adventure film like this one, there isn't time to develop the character fully, so what you have to do is give her superficial bits that make it look like there's more than what the audience sees. I concentrate on manners of speech, the way she walks.”
Though she admits she doesn't like to see herself on any screen, Roberts still notes, "I go and check the dailies for technical reasons: to make sure that my makeup's OK, that my voice is OK, that things are falling into place—that my acting is right. But, basically I don't like to see myself on film. No one likes herself on screen, but you have to just grit your teeth and try to be objective."
While starring in a Bond film wasn't one of Tanya Roberts' career goals, she has always been captivated by 007’s spectacular adventures. "I've seen them all," she announces, "But I never thought of being in one—it just didn't cross my mind. I love them, because they're escapism. Still, I think the people who are dreaming about being in movies, like the Bond films, are generally the people who aren't in movies. I’m in show business: I’m very realistic. The people who are really interested and who make it magical are those who aren't in it. People in show business realize this life really isn't glamorous. I mean, I was filthy dirty [to do the mine scenes] and getting up at four a.m.—that's hardly glamorous. Fans make you. I certainly hope that people like me in my work, and I appreciate every letter that I get. I'm glad they like me, or I wouldn't be in this business. But for those fans, it's a very different reality than it is for me. They're going to be watching the finished product, which has taken us five months and a lot of hard work, including three days I spent choking on smoke. It's not what it looks like in the finished film."
Roberts has nothing but praise for the people she worked with in lensing A View to a Kill. "I had a wonderful time and I think it's the best movie I've ever done," she remarks. "The crew, most of whom had worked on several previous Bonds, has such a family spirit—and the director, John Glen, who set the shooting's pace, was such a very calm, easy-going guy, that there was never any tension on the set."
Though her character's relationship with James Bond starts off a bit rocky in the film, Roberts reports that real life with Roger Moore didn't repeat reel life with his superspy counterpart, "Roger's very consistent and nice and he's always in a good mood, very professional and easy to work with,” she comments, "You might as well be married to the people you're working with in a film; it is a marriage, more or less. You get all kinds of personalities, and it's nice when you get mellow ones like Roger Moore."
Speaking of marriages, Roberts has been wedded to screenwriter Barry Roberts for the past 10 years. Theirs is a solid relationship, helped along by the fact that Barry usually travels to any movie location where Tanya is working, "I will be married forever," she announces, I would rather be sitting at home with Barry than be with any other man in the world." They have become a globe-trotting couple, staying together in A View to a Kill's London, France and San Francisco locations.
Admitting that all her well-known roles have been similar both in age and style to herself, Roberts observes, "When you're young, it's a very difficult mold to break out of. If you look at the careers of people like Faye Dunaway or Jane Fonda, they really didn't accomplish much until they were in their thirties. When you're young and pretty, you get cast in the same sort of roles— and it's a terrible fight to get out of them. You just have to hang in there and do the best you can and, sooner or later, someone is going to throw you something that's very demanding. The trick is to be ready for it when it comes along. What's heart-breaking is when you walk in to meet a producer or director, and you look like me, they don't think, 'Hey! Let's hire her for The Three Faces of Eve or Sybil. Beauty is a stigma that really works against you. Being the leading lady in a Bond film, which has much more of a guarantee of success than any other movie, gives other film-makers the chance to see me doing something different—a little comedy, a little drama, a lot of action," she points out. “The role is not a tremendous stretch as an actress, obviously, but it keeps you in their minds. I hope they see me in the film and perhaps consider me for something of significance. It's very important to be seen and it's very important for an actor to act. An artist can paint a picture, just sit down and paint; a sax player can blow; a pianist can play. But what can an actor do—sit down and recite a soliloquy? It just doesn't work that way. You must work. At this point. I've turned down several things because I feel they aren't going to lead me in the right way. I desperately want to work—I'm a workaholic. It's the only way to improve.”
"Starring in A View to a Kill is a very big step, a very big break, because everyone sees a James Bond movie,” Tanya Roberts concludes. “ What is of paramount importance is the next role I play. Selecting my next movie is the thing I must give full concentration to doing. It is the next role that will cement my career as an actress!"
END OF INTERVIEW
Well, Tanya’s career sort of petered out after this and no major roles came her way and she ended up back on television. She did remain married to her husband up to his death. Tanya died in January 2021. I do find her very egocentric in this interview, maybe she should have taken more notice of how Roger Moore handled interviews.
she may say her characters "no dumb blonde", and this is true: her characters a professional geologist and delivers exposition important to the plot. But I gotta say, I was more convinced with her character in That 70s Show , she was hilarious in that role. "is this based on a true story?"
Was that a Freudian misprint : "angelic defective" ?
No, it’s my typo 😂
Interview with Denise Richards in TWINE Official Magazine (1999)
Times have changed quite a bit for James Bond since bikini-clad Ursula Andress emerged from the sea in Dr. No. In the 1990s, 007‘s female counterparts have evolved into more than mere ornaments for the virile spy. GoldenEye, for example, saw the arrival of a new M, only this head of British Secret Service was a hard-edged woman (played by Judi Dench). In Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond met his match in Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), his highkicking counterpart from the Chinese People’s Security Force.
The emergence of strong female characters in the Bond universe continues in The World Is Not Enough, with not one but two powerful women: heiress Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) and nuclear weapons expert Christmas Jones (Denise Richards.) “My character is very strong and sassy,” explains Richards, “and there is a great one-upsmanship between Bond and her, which I love, because it’s like this little back and forth banter between them. She’s very intelligent, so she helps Bond throughout his journey to save the world.”
Richards was delighted to be a part of the 007 phenomenon, but getting to play a capable and intelligent Bond girl was icing on the proverbial cake. Although she didn’t perform any really perilous stunts, Richards did see her share of the action.
“It’s fun,” Richards says, “and it’s great to try and do as much stuff as we can do so that it looks real when they cut everything together. And, it’s easier for them to cut it together if we can do things ourselves. If [my stunt double’s] face shows, they can’t use it. Then it’s easier for the director to make it more believable, so it’s not, ‘Oh, there’s her stunt double!’ ”
Not surprisingly, Richards has no difficulty recalling the most physically challenging sequences from The World Is Not Enough. “It’s the stuff with the submarine,” she reveals. “I had to work with a diver to practice working with a respirator in between takes. I’ve used one before, but never for a job or without a mask. I also had to learn how to take the [respirator] out underwater and then put it back in. I was nervous about doing that, but that’s the fun part of making a Bond film.
“In the submarine sequence, the set is built on four different stages; it’s a huge, elaborate set. They've done such an amazing job, and it’s physical stuff. It’s difficult to work when the set is moving, and I did a little bit of that on Starship Troopers, but this set moves completely at a 90-degree angle. That's the stuff that, even though it doesn’t seem like we're doing much, is the most challenging.”
Working on a film as large and complex as The World Is Not Enough was a major career undertaking for Richards, but she’s quick to point out that the benefits have far outweighed the difficulties. “When I signed up to do this movie, I knew it was going to be six months. It was difficult being away,” she admits, “if I had even four days off, I would fly home, just because I need to have that balance. But I understand that it’s part of the business.
“If I come in and they decide to change a shot and I’m not needed until late afternoon, that’s part of it. That's the hard part, the waiting around, but it’s exciting, too. I get to stay in London. I’ve never done a film in Europe, so it has been a great opportunity for me, and every weekend, my boyfriend [Starship Troopers co-star Patrick Muldoon] flew to London and he and I went to Paris. I’ve never been there, and he hasn’t either, and it’s so convenient to take the train—three hours and you're there. From LA by plane, it would have taken over 10 hours, so it has been a great opportunity.”
A native of suburban Illinois, Richards moved to California after graduating high school in 1989 and went straight into modeling. After assignments in New York, Paris and Tokyo, she decided a career change was in order and began putting her energies into acting. Appearances followed in Melrose Place, Doogie Howser M.D. and the short-lived NBC drama Against the Grain, in which she joined an up-and-coming actor named Ben Affleck. Richards made her feature film debut in 1993’s National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 and went on to do Tammy and the T-Rex, PCH, Lookin’ Italian and Nowhere. Her breakthrough role came in the SF action-adventure epic Starship Troopers, where she played the ambitious space pilot Carmen Ibanez. That led to the controversial thriller Wild Things, where Richards raised a few eyebrows as a scheming high school Lolita, co-starring with Neve Campbell, Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon. This past summer, Richards garnered further attention in the comic mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous, about the behind-the-scenes backstabbing taking place in a small-town Minnesota beauty pageant. Richards plays an over-zealous high school contestant, probably the last teenage part she'll be taking on with her ascension to more mature roles. After wrapping her work as Christmas Jones, she returned to LA to start work on a new romantic comedy with Matt Damon and her former Against the Grain co-star Affleck. With The World Is Not Enough, the actress is somewhat taken aback at the prospect of being a Bond girl for the new Millennium. “I just think about it as doing the movie,” Richards says, “but it’s exciting to be a part of it. My Mom is thrilled, because she saw Goldfinger seven times. She’s so excited I’m doing this, and I am, too. But for myself, it’s just about doing a good job, and however people perceive it, as the Bond woman of the Millennium, that’s fine. Also, what was very appealing about this was working with Michael Apted. He’s such a great director, and an actor’s director, and he brings a nice element to the movie as far as caring about the characters. It’s not just about the action.”
Unlike an FX-based film like Starship Troopers, where the actors were often secondary to computer-generated bugs, The World Is Not Enough is a more characterbased piece, where the actors take precedence over the action and FX sequences. “It's nice,” notes Richards, “because without good characters, sometimes it’s not interesting. You don’t care what happens to them, and you don’t root for them or you're not sad when something happens to them. It’s not that Michael cares more about our performance, as opposed to “that special effect is better let’s use that take”, Michael wants all of us to want to do it.”
The actress also credits her leading man Pierce Brosnan with making the job that much easier, particularly in the first weeks of filming. “I really like him,” she affirms. “I was so excited to get this, but then I was so intimidated walking into it. This is the nineteenth Bond movie, and it’s Pierce’s third [as 007], so it’s intimidating, but he couldnt have been more welcoming, charming and professional.
He knows—having to walk into this stepping into the Bond role—what it’s like, and he makes it very easy to feel comfortable. We hit it off right away. Pierce is great to work with. I’ve been very lucky. It’s [rewarding] to work off a good actor. It’s always good to work with talented actors who are better than you. I find that it helps your performance.” The prospect of working in England for several months wasn’t a thoroughly comfortable one for the Los Angeles-loving Richards, who admits suffering some degree of culture shock early on in the production. “The thing that took me a long time to get used to is the weather. It can be sunny, rainy and snowy in one day. It’s unbelievable, and I love the sunshine, so that was hard. But I love tea-time here—scones and clotted cream. Scones are like a once a month thing, and we don’t see much clotted cream in California.
“Also, I’m away from home,” she adds, “and there are very few Americans on the film—everyone here works, then they go home. I’m renting an apartment here. So it makes it easier when everyone gets along; it’s a nice feeling.”
With her work in The World Is Not Enough finished, Richards admits that it’s still too soon to figure out exactly what she'll take as an actor from the experience. “I learn different things as we go along,” she claims, “and sometimes you don’t know until you’re on your next movie what you take. Six months is a long time, and I learned different things about myself, about working with other actors and the director. Every actor learns something on every movie. Every movie is a stepping stone, and Bond is great because it’s such an international movie—everyone all over the world loves James Bond. And if you're in a big movie that makes a lot of money, you're afforded more opportunities.
“I just tell people it’s meant to entertain,” she insists. “It’s a fantasy. James Bond is a great guy, he’s a hero and gets all the girls. It should be for audiences to have a good time and like the movie and our characters and believe we're doing what we're doing. It’s for them to be entertained.”
And that just leaves time for three quick questions. Which Bond movie is Denise Richards’ personal favorite? “I would say Goldfinger,” she answers without hesitation. Her favorite Bond girl? That one is tougher. After a moment's pause, “I would have to say, Ursula Andress is probably my favorite.” As for her favorite James Bond, the response is immediate: “I can’t answer that!” A wise response indeed, from one of the Bond girls for a new Millennium.
END OF INTERVIEW
I think Denise Richards comes across as a very nice, grounded person in this interview. I don’t like the Brosnan era, but I do like Denise, and she is very much unfairly criticised by fans.
Thanks again, CHB...this is an interview I missed at the time…I suppose we are harder on the actors with poorly developed characters, although I’m not sure there is much in Denise’s work that sparkles….I liked Brosnan, but I do feel he was let down with some average scripts 😵💫
She certainly has a straight head on those perky shoulders. Such a pity her role was so one dimensional.
Interview with Bruce Feirstein in Tomorrow Never Dies Technical Journal (1997)
Writing these films is like putting together a big puzzie,” says screenwriter Bruce Feirstein of his work on James Bond’s adventures. “You're continually going back and forth and figuring out, ‘We'll put this here, and that there,’ and then you go back in afterwards and sprinkle it with toys.”
Tomorrow Never Dies is Feirstein’s second Bond film, following GoldenEye, for which he did some rewrites. “I had been brought in at the very end of the last film, four months before production, to add some jokes and give Bond some flavor; they didn’t feel that the film had quite come forward into the ’90s.”
While he was doing a final polish on Pierce Brosnan’s debut 007 vehicle, the idea for the next film was born. “When we were finishing GoldenEye,” he explains, “I went to producer Michael Wilson and said, ‘I have an idea for the next film.’ This was in November '94, and I said four words to Michael and Barbara Broccoli. ‘Hong Kong media baron.’ GoldenEye came out in Thanksgiving '95, and in January 1, 1996, I came to London and Michael and I began beating out the parameters of this story.
“I started out as a journalist” adds Feirstein of the story’s inspiration. “So, the film started with one sentence, where Carver looks at Bond and says, ‘We're both men of action, Mr. Bond, but your era is passing. Words are the new weapons, satellites are the new artillery.
“I went away and wrote from March to August, turning in my first draft in August. Roger Spottiswoode came on board as director in September or October. Now, all big action films have multiple writers, so as these things go all the time, other people added other things, then I was brought back to do the final script, the one we're shooting.” Feirstein is matter-of-fact when discussing the subject of different writers working on a script. “As a screenwriter, the first draft is your baby and that’s it, but if you want to work in this business, you know that the script gets handed off and it becomes the director’s vision. There is a trade-off that goes on and you understand that. Big changes are made. But when I was brought back, I made it very simple: I'm not Pierce’s writer; I’m not Michael’s writer; I am the writer of the film. It’s not about fighting for what I want. It's like your kid grows up and goes away. At that point, you're the film’s writer, so you just turn around and make the movie possible. Film is really a collaborative medium, and you absolutely cannot say, ‘I want it my way!’
“As the writer, you are servicing 100 different requirements; it comes down to locations, actors, the director’s vision. There was a terrific precredits sequence originally written for this film, one of the first things I wrote, and it involved an ice climb. I loved it; I adored it, but the simple truth is, the stuntman looked at it and said, ‘This is far too dangerous.’ The film was going to begin with Bond climbing this ice fall somewhere in Norway, but we couldn’t do it. As a grown-up, you can’t pout. You just have to say that your job is to help the production. The first draft is the ego draft, but sometimes you have to put that aside.”
The many different colored pages of Feirstein’s shooting script are clear testament to the number of changes a Bond story must undergo during production, sometimes right up to the last minute. The reasons for those changes are varied and complex, especially for such an internationally successful franchise as James Bond. “You're very cognizant of writing for the world. I had talked to Michael at one point about doing a sequence in Vietnam, and that was an element of intrigue for America.
“In one of the scenes we were just shooting, Bond is in a helicopter with Wai Lin and he’s looking at Carver's building. There were two versions of it. In one version, she says, ‘It looks like Carver is throwing another party,’ and it’s this big building with the banner and he says, ‘I think this time, it’s for us.’ The other one was, ‘Another Carver building; If I didn’t know better, I would say the man has an edifice complex!’ We did both of them, but one was better for the international market. We do films for the world. In GoldenEye, there’s a line when Bond comes out of the helicopter and he says, ‘The things we do for frequent flyer mileage.’ I kept arguing for that, even though I knew it would only play in America. These films are enormously collaborative, and the two producers are in with me all the time, and sometimes it’s brutal in a good way. On the last film, I went through 30 drafts of ‘You're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur.’ ”
An additional pressure on Feirstein while writing Tomorrow Never Dies was not having the excitement of a brand new Bond for this film. That meant finding different and imaginative ways of attracting moviegoers this time around. “Before the last one, they had a six-year hiatus, and there was a tremendous novelty in having a new Bond, and the film delivered.
“In this one, Pierce very much wanted to peel away the layers of the character. I wanted to see old girl friends; that was something that intrigued me, because I wanted to write a line where a woman looks at him and says, ‘Not this time; I am not ending up on another raft with you in the middle of the Seychelles Islands!’ That went through so many variations; at one point, Moneypenny looks over her shoulder and says, ‘Didn’t you end up on a raft with that woman, in the middle of the Seychelles Islands?’ Paris [the Teri Hatcher character] was in the first draft, and she has changed for the better, with input from Roger and everyone. I was always intrigued and I know Pierce was intrigued about his ‘character.’ The thing about Bond is he’s human. I love the character only because, like everyone else, I was one of those little boys who went to see Goldfinger and you see Goldfinger and it’s about the car, the naked girl painted gold and Oddjob.
“Anyway, about peeling back the layers of the character, that’s when it started to come together. Pierce very much wanted to play a [character-revealing] scene like that, and I very much wanted to see that scene. Carver comes into it this way: What is the scariest thing today? I thought the scariest, most believable maniac would be a huge, world-dominating media mogul. There’s a small homage to Citizen Kane, where Carver says, ‘Thus, I offer my declaration of principles to the world.’ That's where Carver comes from.”
One of Feirstein’s most important achievements on Tomorrow Never Dies is creating a compelling and well-developed villain in the guise of media giant Elliot Carver. The writer gives a large part of the credit to actor Jonathan Pryce; the two worked very closely in developing and refining Carver into a threedimensional creation. “I had worked for New York Magazine, TV Guide and Fox, so I had actually seen some of these media moguls, even though Carver isn’t based on any of them. You pick and choose; it’s not based on anyone in particular. “There was also a language I wanted to use for him, which is a military language. I wanted him to be very formal and for everyone to refer to him as ‘Mr.’ And I wanted almost a one-word exclamation: ‘Excellent!’ ‘Outstanding!’ no matter what he said. That came from the military, the way that fighter pilots always talked. It was a fun character to write.”
Another major innovation in Tomorrow never Dies is the creation of Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh. Instead of being yet another sexy but vulnerable Bond girl, Wai Lin is actually Bond's Chinese counterpart. “We had an idea on the last film,” says Feirstein, “that the world has changed and Bond hasn’t, so every scene was about putting Bond in a situation where everything is different: His boss is now a woman, the KGB agent is now an arms dealer, his ex-partner has now gone over and is an enemy spy, the woman is a computer programmer and is beautiful and smart, and we begin to talk about his life.
“There's a line that got cut in GoldenEye, which is about how a license to kill is also a certificate to die, but it was too purple so we took it out. There is a scene on the beach with Izabella Scorupco [who plays Natalya], where he says a license to kill is ‘what keeps me alive.”
That sets a platform for the next movie. Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp was incredibly perverse in GoldenEye, so this time, we gave him an old girl friend, and also someone female who's every bit Bond’s equal.”
Feirstein is delighted with the way that Tomorrow Never Dies is turning out. “The motorcycle chase is fabulous,” he enthuses. “I look outside and see that construction we're using to jump the motorcycle over the helicopter, and I shake my head and think, ‘What have I done?’
“You look at the Carver stuff, the opening credit sequence, the gag with the plane—in the first draft, the plane came in overhead and Bond shot it down, but technically we found out it wasn’t possible, and I look at the scene now and say, ‘What was I thinking?’ A year ago, I wrote that Carver would have a large circular media center, and I walk in and can’t believe it’s there, or in that level of detail. When we shot in the recording studio, there was a phone book down there, and it was a Hamburg phone book. Somebody actually went and got a Hamburg phone book! That's a weird thing, when you walk around and see that kind of detail.”
In the end, one of the biggest thrills of writing a James Bond film is just that: putting words into the mouth of the world’s greatest secret agent. “I know what it’s like to sit there and type the word ‘Bond,’ ” says Bruce Feirstein, “and of course you come to the sentence where you say, ‘The name is Bond, James Bond,’ and then you say, ‘A martini, shaken, not stirred.’ You write that and you think lan Fleming and screenwriter Richard Maibaum are looking over your shoulder. Every time I get stuck, I wonder what would Maibaum do? If you read the books, there’s no humor in them. The humor comes from Maibaum, he and ‘Cubby’ Broccoli were the geniuses, and in GoldenEye, I think I came close two or three times, but Maibaum was in a league of his own.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for Pierce to walk around and be James Bond, especially here in England, where it’s all-pervasive. The first time I wrote the draft for this movie, I remember typing the line, ‘This is James Bond, British secret service agent 007,’ and then I walked around London thinking, ‘I’m writing James Bond!’ ”
END OF INTERVIEW
A very interesting interview - I’m not a fan of the Brosnan era but TND is by far the best of the bunch of his reign, it has a proper old-style Bond villain and plot, and ranks higher than four of Roger Moore entries.