George Lazenby, Australia's 007, reflects on the 50th anniversary of On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You'd imagine a first-time actor, more acquainted with the grease-stained asphalt of rural NSW car yards than the sound stages of swinging sixties London, would have a moment of trepidation walking on set to take over James Bond from Sean Connery.
"I had an ego that got me the job, so I kind of felt that I was doing them a favour," George Lazenby, now 80, says with a laugh over the phone from his Los Angeles home, where's he's been based since 1976.Credit:, the franchise's sixth film, debuted in cinemas across the world, projecting the Goulburn-born car salesman-turned-ad model into pop culture history.
"They looked at about 800 people, they tested 300 on film, and then they picked a guy who'd never acted in his life before. I thought gee, I must have something. But I didn't know what that was. I had a lot of arrogance. And when I told them I was leaving the job and they offered me millions of dollars to stay, I felt even bigger-headed."While critics savaged his stilted on-screen chops, the film was a box-office success.
He recalls his decision with the self-mocking regret of 50 years' hindsight, an absurd shrug around a showbiz cautionary tale so fabled his name's become lyrical shorthand for squandered opportunities. Did he at least feel vindicated that Bond's relevancy continues to be debated? "Well, I haven't seen a Bond movie since mine. It just brings up too many bad memories," he says. "But I've had to listen to people talk about it and I've watched how times have changed. Women are coming into power, you just have to look at the newscast: 75 per cent of the people on there are women and before it was 10 per cent, so women have taken over. I don't say that as a bad thing but it's different.
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