{"id":10512,"date":"2022-10-14T13:59:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T13:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10512"},"modified":"2022-10-17T13:04:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T13:04:27","slug":"why-roger-moore-did-not-become-a-bank-robber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10512","title":{"rendered":"Why Roger Moore did not become a bank robber"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013\u00a0Roger Moore, who was born on this day in 1927, told me that really he was a frustrated bank robber. \u2018It\u2019s only fear that\u2019s stopped me from robbing banks,\u2019 he said. \u2018I\u2019d get caught. That\u2019s why I\u2019m a movie actor. I\u2019ve never been caught acting.\u2019<\/p>\n

Moore, who died aged 89 on May 23, 2017, gave me one of my most treasured interviews, candid and very funny, on the Pinewood Studios set of his seventh and final James Bond picture, \u2018A View to a Kill\u2019, on Dec. 10, 1984. Here are some excerpts:<\/p>\n

I suggested that he was one of those actors whose work is described as effortless. Did he resent that?<\/p>\n

\u2018No,\u2019 he said. \u2018That\u2019s the way it should be.\u2019<\/p>\n

But did he feel he was not given credit for the hard work that made it appear easy?<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t give a shit. I get paid. If acting shows onscreen then it\u2019s wrong. Film acting is listening and re-acting.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Had he ever wished his career had gone in other directions. \u2018I would be an ingrate, if I did. It\u2019s about those crossroads you come to in life. At the beginning of my film career, literally within the same week as I signed for MGM, I was offered The Old Vic. Well, I might have gone on carrying a spear for 40 years or I might have gone on to be a classical actor. Who knows? I have a feeling I\u2019d have been carrying a fucking spear.\u2019<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s humour was always self-deprecating and I suggested that was borne of a great deal of self-confidence.<\/p>\n

He smiled, \u2018I presume so. Obviously. I must be self-confident to say this. You see through me.\u2019<\/p>\n

Was there a time when he lacked that self-confidence? \u2018Oh, yes. I used to be terribly timid. I would rather not eat than go into a restaurant on my own. Even now, I hate that. I sort of covered up my timidity by being ingratiatingly charming. Which is why I got away with murder with teachers at school. Smiled a lot. I recall when I came out of the army and started in repertory, a director, or producer as we used to call them, said, you\u2019re not very good, smile a lot when you come on. So, I smile a lot.\u2019<\/p>\n

Had he ever been flat broke?<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh, sure, but I hate doing a story like, oh, god, you have no idea how I suffered. Bullshit! But, yeah, I wasn\u2019t born rich. I\u2019ve always had to work. Our profession is very dodgy and I wouldn\u2019t recommend it to anyone. Quite often you get asked what advice you\u2019d give to young people who want to go into acting and I say, you\u2019ve really got to like it. You\u2019ve really got to be prepared not to have any success and put up with an awful lot of crap from people dropping it on you from great heights. Because even when you\u2019re lucky enough to become successful, they\u2019re still dropping it on you. And they\u2019re trying to knock away the rungs on the ladder underneath you. The first ones are the critics who love to hate you. I would have made an ideal critic. I can be as rude about myself as critics are. And I can be even ruder about them.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013\u00a0Roger Moore, who was born on this day in 1927, told me that really he was a frustrated bank robber. \u2018It\u2019s only fear that\u2019s stopped me from robbing banks,\u2019 he said. \u2018I\u2019d get caught. That\u2019s why … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1263,2257],"tags":[4582,668,4581,4580],"class_list":["post-10512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","tag-a-view-to-a-kill","tag-james-bond","tag-pinewood-studios","tag-roger-moore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10512"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10518,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10512\/revisions\/10518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}