Mark Strong describes his Bond Villain screentest failure
03-Jun-2021 • Actor News
British actor Mark Strong is not a stranger to rumours about potential roles in James Bond films, and that is perhaps because he did once audition for a Bond Villain role during the Pierce Brosnan era.
He told Sky's 'Something About The Movies': "I went up for a villain in a Bond movie in the Pierce Brosnan era. And I learnt the lines… and to celebrate I went out for a drink and I got pissed. I overdid it and the next day I was severely hungover. I started, then I just forgot my lines, couldn’t remember what they were and they all just kind of fell apart. I was sweating, it was a terrible experience but I really learnt from it. But the irony was, the guy I was out the night before getting pissed with was Daniel Craig. So I blame him!"
However, two years ago he told the same story but with a different reason for failure: "I cocked it up. I’d underestimated what it would feel like being in the room. You can be at home and you can practice and do your lines but when you get into the room and the moment comes where everybody sits back and says ‘okay then, give us what you’ve got’, that’s quite a tense time. Leaving it late or leaving it to the last moment so you can catch something unexpected – which some actors do, and I admire that – that’s not me. I like to prepare."
It is not stated which film Strong was up for, but it was likely to have been 'Die Another Day'.
