{"id":8979,"date":"2017-05-27T15:15:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-27T15:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8979"},"modified":"2017-06-20T13:21:19","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T13:21:19","slug":"on-the-james-bond-set-with-roger-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8979","title":{"rendered":"On the James Bond set with Roger Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 Roger Moore, who died on May 23 aged 89, told me that really he was a frustrated bank robber. \u201cIt\u2019s only fear that\u2019s stopped me from robbing banks, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m a movie actor. I\u2019d get caught. I\u2019ve never been caught acting.\u201d<\/p>\n

I spoke to him at Pinewood Studios on Dec. 10, 1984, on the set of his last James Bond picture, \u201cA View to a Kill\u201d. He had just been shooting an action scene with co-star Tanya Roberts. Unruffled, he sat on a director\u2019s chair in the middle of a very cold soundstage smoking the first of several Davidoff cigars he would enjoy through the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boilers are gone. This centre of the British film industry on a Monday morning is freeze-your-bollocks-off time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debonair star did not look it, but he was 57 years old at the time and so I asked if there would be an eighth 007 outing for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe answer is always the same,\u201d he said. \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil it\u2019s yes,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil it\u2019s yes. One thing you can be sure about me is that I always tell the truth until I open my mouth. Then, I lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As it turned out, \u201cA View to a Kill\u201d (above) was Moore\u2019s final appearance as James Bond so I was pleased to catch him before it all ended. I spent the best part of an hour talking to the star who had been famous in the United Kingdom since the Fifties when he picked up a sword in the title role of the TV series \u201cIvanhoe\u201d (pictured below).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the mid-Fifties, he made a clutch of Hollywood pictures without huge success: \u201cThe Last Time I Saw Paris\u201d (1954) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson, \u201cInterrupted Melody\u201d (1955) starring Glenn Ford and Eleanor Parker, \u201cThe King\u2019s Thief\u201d (1955) starring Ann Blyth and David Niven and \u201cDiane\u201d (1956) starring Lana Turner.<\/p>\n

Television proved more fruitful and right after 39 episodes of \u201cIvanhoe\u201d (1959-60), Moore dug for gold in \u201cThe Alaskans\u201d with Dorothy Provine and took over from James Garner in \u201cMaverick\u201d for 16 shows.<\/p>\n

Moore told me: \u201c\u2018The Alaskans\u2019 was almost a Western: a frozen Western. I didn\u2019t want to do \u2018Maverick\u2019 \u00a0at all. I didn\u2019t want to replace Jim Garner (pictured below with Moore). They said I wasn\u2019t replacing him, that it was an entirely different character [cousin Beauregard] but I noticed all the trousers had J. Garner written inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was about that time that I saw a quote in which Moore said he always blinked when guns went off. I asked him how he\u2019d gotten over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody blinks, actually. You see Western stars, they\u2019re always squinting their eyes. That\u2019s because they\u2019re pinching the muscles to stop themselves from blinking. The trouble with me is that I blink before it goes off because I know it\u2019s going to go off. But there you are. I\u2019m getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Moore hit pay dirt as the suave and ruthless\u00a0 Simon Templar in ITC\u2019s hit series \u201cThe Saint\u201d (below left), which ran for 118 episodes from 1962 to 1969.\u00a0He was fairly used to replacing people, he said: \u201cGeorge Sanders played \u2018The Saint\u2019 long before me. Louis Hayward did, too, and Hugh Sinclair, an English actor, in some films. People said Tom Conway also did but he didn\u2019t. He played \u2018The Falcon\u2019, \u00a0a lift from \u2018The Saint\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time that series finished its run, Sean Connery had made five James Bond films and it looked as if he would finally quit the role. Almost everyone agreed that Roger Moore was the natural choice to take over. I asked him if it had been that simple. \u201cWell, I don\u2019t suppose anybody else worked as cheap as me or turned up on time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In fact, he had been asked to play Bond earlier when it appeared that Connery would leave. Moore said he discussed one project as 007 but it was set in Cambodia and events made it impossible to shoot there so the story was dropped. The Bond producers went on to another one and by that time Moore had decided to do \u2018The Persuaders\u2019 with Tony Curtis on TV.\u00a0\u201cSean went back and did another one and when he finally took a powder, they came back to me. I have no pride whatsoever. Always ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s first appearance in the role was in \u201cLive and Let Die\u201d (1963) and it was a very different James Bond as he continued to show in \u201cThe Man With the Golden Gun\u201d (1974), \u201cThe Spy Who Loved Me\u201d (1977), \u201cMoonraker\u201d (1979\u201d, \u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d (1981) and \u201cOctopussy\u201d (top, 1983).<\/p>\n

I suggested to him that he played the character much more as the man I saw in Ian Fleming\u2019s novels, very much from the playing fields of England as a man who often got into trouble but was always able to get out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I\u2019ve never gone back to the books to find out what it\u2019s all about. I just play it the way I see it,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI always want humour in the films. \u2018The Spy Who Loved Me\u2019 (below), I think, had all the right ingredients in it. \u2018Octopussy\u2019 worked, too, in terms of the humour that I tried to get in. A lot of the time, it\u2019s impossible to get any humour in. There are moments when you have to be serious and they\u2019re the moments when I really want to laugh my head off. You think, \u2018This is a load of cobblers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Was it really a tussle to introduce humour into the films? \u201cWell, no, not a tussle. Sometimes, it\u2019s written in the script, sometimes it\u2019s not there at all. Whoever\u2019s directing, John Glen*, say, or in the past Lewis Gilbert*, would say, \u2018Come on, then, let\u2019s have a joke here.\u2019 Or I\u2019ll say I think we need a joke. Then we make them up. Even if they\u2019re written, we change them. As Cubby Broccoli always says, \u2018Bonds are made by committee.\u2019 We basically all work together to make it the best we possibly can and then it\u2019s up to the director to adjudicate what he things is best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When \u201cOctopussy\u201d (below) came out in 1983, Sean Connery returned to Bond in a remake of \u201cThunderball\u201d titled \u201cNever Say Never Again\u201d. That wasn’t a problem, Moore said:\u00a0 \u201cI was delighted! Everybody\u2019s working. Making two films at the same time, you double the amount of people who have work. Cubby, of course, was pissed off but it didn\u2019t worry me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked about Christopher Walken, the villain in \u201cA View to a Kill\u201d: \u201cLovely fella. Very interesting. Good actor. Very pleasant to work with too. Mind you, all my villains that I\u2019ve had in Bond have been very good. I envy them all because they\u2019ve got the best part. They really do. Bloody villains!\u201d<\/p>\n

In the centre of the Pinewood soundstage, an assistant director approached us, \u201cRoger, when you\u2019re ready?\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore said, \u201cWhen I\u2019m ready? I\u2019m not ready. I don\u2019t want to go. Oh, well. Excuse me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did a fight scene in three sides of a hotel room and after a few takes, it was time for lunch. Moore ate along with everyone else in the studio commissary sitting with his son Christian and Dudley Moore, who was dressed as an elf because he was shooting \u201cSanta Clause: The Movie\u201d at the studio. My table was next to theirs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After lunch, Roger Moore joined me again on the soundstage: \u201cDid you have a good lunch?\u201d he said. \u201cWhere did you eat? So. What were we talking of? What boring subject was I on about? Bond. Yes. Bond and boredom. Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mick Jagger had said recently that it was odd to be a rock star at 40 so I asked Moore if he felt it was odd to be an action hero at his age: \u201cI dunno. I play heroes, you know? Sometimes I jump around; sometimes I don\u2019t. The last movie I made, I got the shit kicked out of me. I was the hero but he was not an athletic hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was \u201cThe Naked Face\u201d (above, 1984), written and directed by Bryan Forbes and based on the first thriller written by Sidney Sheldon. Moore played a psychiatrist suspected of murdering one of his patients. Was that a stretch? \u201cWell, Bond doesn\u2019t say much, you know? Playing a psychiatrist, you listen a lot but you also have a lot to say. But in no way is he a hero. When he finally gets the shit kicked out of him, there\u2019s very little to do about it, which made a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was it a risk for him to play a villain? \u201cIt depends. You know, leading film actors have a persona when they play heroes so there are things they don\u2019t do. I would love to play villains but they won\u2019t let me. Nobody casts me as a villain. In a certain sense I can see why. There are people who go to see you for the type of thing you do and you might piss them off by being nasty. But being rotten, they\u2019re the best parts. That would be natural to me. This is acting. Being a nice guy is acting because really underneath, I\u2019m a shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me more about that,\u201d I said. \u201cExactly what is the truth underneath this charming exterior?\u201d Moore said: \u201cA monster! A monster!\u201d<\/p>\n

Was there a moment, in fact, when he became aware that he had the kind of good lucks and charm that made people like him?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, by answering that question it means that I accept what you\u2019ve said and, of course, how right you are. Er, no. I don\u2019t think so. I\u2019ve always been rather surprised, actually, that I was employed. I didn\u2019t expect not to be employed but I\u2019m always surprised when I am. I\u2019ve been very lucky. It\u2019s luck in the first place to be there at the right time. It\u2019s luck that the part comes along. It\u2019s luck that you\u2019re accepted in it. It\u2019s luck that they come back for more. And it\u2019s their bad luck because they\u2019ve got to watch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Was it ever a worry that audiences would be unwilling to accept him in other roles? \u201cNo, it\u2019s no worry. I\u2019ve always had that question asked ever since I did things that I became known in, you know, things like \u2018Ivanhoe\u2019. I finished \u2018Ivanhoe\u2019 and went to Warner Bros. and made some movies there and a couple of TV series and I was not afraid I would be stuck there. I\u2019ve been lucky. I\u2019ve been able to move back and forth from TV to movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

I suggested that he\u2019s one of those actors whose work is described as effortless. Did he resent that?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI don\u2019t give a shit. I get paid. If acting shows onscreen then it\u2019s wrong. Film acting is listening and re-acting. Unless, of course, you\u2019re playing what I call the lovely character parts where you wear a false nose and beard and hide behind things. As a leading man, you have no physical things to hide behind. You haven\u2019t got the hump, you know? You can\u2019t do, \u2018The bells! The bells!\u2019, all that crap. Which is fun, you know, fun to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Had he ever wished his career had gone in other directions. \u201cI would be an ingrate, if I did,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\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. But I only say things like that because I\u2019m modest.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it was, Moore\u2019s career brought fame and riches and he was grateful for both. \u201cThe joy of having money is that you can give your children what you want to,\u201d he said. \u201cFinancial security is a great state. I used to have ulcers but I\u2019ve noticed since I have no financial worries to speak of that I don\u2019t have ulcers any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cOh, sure, but I hate doing a story like, \u2018Oh, god, you have no idea how I suffered.\u2019 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, \u2018You\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 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.\u201d<\/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, \u201cI presume so. Obviously. I must be self-confident to say this. You see through me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was there a time when he lack that self-confidence? \u201cOh, 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, \u2018You\u2019re not very good. Smile a lot when you come on.\u2019 So, I smile a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was it hard to muster the same energy for a new Bond? \u201cWell, no,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same as doing any new picture because there\u2019s a new script, a new cast. It’s usually most of the same crew but most of the pictures I do are with the same crew anyway. They\u2019re the only ones who will work with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Moore made other entertaining films in between 007 outings including George S. Cosmatos\u2019s World War II adventure \u201cEscape to Athena\u201d (1979) and \u201cShout at the Devil\u201d (1976) by Peter Hunt, who had edited and directed an episode of \u201cThe Persuaders\u201d, edited three Connery Bonds \u2013 \u201cDr. No\u201d (1962), \u201cFrom Russia with Love\u201d (1963) and \u201cGoldfinger (1964) \u2013 and directed \u201cOn Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service\u201d (1969) with George Lazenby as the secret agent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

His co-star in \u201cShout at the Devil\u201d, set during World War I, was Lee Marvin (pictured above). \u201cI loved working with Lee,\u201d Moore said. \u201cA great character. He\u2019s rich; a fruity actor. There\u2019s a lot going on there.\u201d<\/p>\n

I mentioned that I had recently interviewed American director Andrew V. McLaglen, with whom Moore had made three films: \u201cThe Wild Geese\u201d (1978) with Richard Burton and Richard Harris, \u201cFfolkes\u201d (1980 a.k.a. \u201cNorth Sea Hijack\u201d) with James Mason and Anthony Perkins, and \u201cThe Sea Wolves\u201d (1980) with Gregory Peck and David Niven.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Andy is a lovely fellow,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI\u2019d love to do another with him. He\u2019s great, a beaut to work with. I mean, bang! He\u2019s a wonderful man. He says, \u2018They think there\u2019s something wrong with me as a director in Hollywood because I bring movies in on time.\u2019 And he does. He just drives it through. He\u2019s really good. A funny fellow, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Moore was already friends with Peck and Niven: \u201cWorking together was our idea. \u2018Sea Wolves\u2019 was great fun to do because there was a bunch of mates such as Trevor Howard (pictured above with Peck, Moore and Niven) and Patrick MacNee.\u201d He lived in Switzerland, he said, because David Niven, who had died in 1983, invited him to visit and he decided to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiss him,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

I told him that a colleague and I had been promised an interview with Niven many years earlier but through no fault of his own he had to cancel it at the last minute. He told us, \u201cWrite anything you like, I\u2019ll swear I said it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHa!\u201d said Moore. \u201cTypically David.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked if he, Connery and Michael Caine, contemporary movie spies, really were mates: \u201cOh, yes. Ours is a very small profession and actors are inclined to congregate together. At one time, when Michael and I were both very stable and Sean was here, all three of us would see one another a lot. Now, it\u2019s when we happen to be in the same place. I probably see Sean more in California than I do here because I go there to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bond films are famously international so I asked if he enjoyed all the travelling: \u201cI\u2019m fed up with travelling,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I\u2019m going to become a hermit and not move anymore. This week, I had a few days off. Every weekend, I go home to Switzerland, which is only an hour and a half\u2019s flight but there\u2019s the two-hour drive at the other end and you\u2019ve always got that 45 minutes to be at an airport. Then, on Tuesday we went to Paris. On Friday, to Amsterdam. Then yesterday back in London. I mean, phew! But that wasn\u2019t for work. It was because I had a few days off so it\u2019s my own damned fault!\u201d<\/p>\n

Our time together was coming to an end but I wanted to know if he had strong political views.<\/p>\n

\u201cHmmm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Did he care to talk about them?<\/p>\n

\u201cI avoid expressing them,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019m slightly to the right of Attila the Hun, that\u2019s all. If everybody knew my views, I\u2019d make a lot of enemies. I believe in dictatorship as long as I\u2019m the dictator. A benevolent dictatorship. I suppose I started off, as most young people do when they start thinking of politics, they\u2019re communists. Then you become socialist. Then Labour. Then Liberal when you don\u2019t know which fucking direction you\u2019re going, and then you end up being Conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The A.D. came over to fetch Moore and our time was over.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can make up the rest, as David said. What I like, I\u2019ll take credit for. What I don\u2019t, I\u2019ll deny.\u201d<\/p>\n

*John Glen, now 85, directed the Bond films \u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d (1981), \u201cOctopussy\u201d (1983), and \u201cA View to a Kill\u201d (1985) with Moore and \u201cThe Living Daylights\u201d (1987) and\u00a0 \u201cLicence to Kill\u201d (1989) with Timothy Dalton as 007. He edited \u201cOn Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service\u201d, \u201cThe Spy Who Loved Me\u201d and \u201cMoonraker\u201d (1979) as well as Moore\u2019s films, \u201cGold\u201d (1974), \u201cThe Wild Geese\u201d and \u201cSea Wolves\u201d. Lewis Gilbert, now 97, directed \u201cYou Only Live Twice\u201d (1967) with Connery and \u201cThe Spy Who Loved Me\u201d and \u201cMoonraker\u201d with Moore. His other films included \u201cReach for the Sky\u201d (1956), \u201cSink the Bismarck!\u201d (1960), \u201cAlfie\u201d (1966), \u201cEducating Rita\u201d (1983) and \u201cShirley Valentine\u201d (1989).<\/p>\n

A version of this story appeared in the Bigscreen section of TV Guide Canada in June 1985.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 Roger Moore, who died on May 23 aged 89, told me that really he was a frustrated bank robber. \u201cIt\u2019s only fear that\u2019s stopped me from robbing banks, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m a movie actor. … 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],"tags":[4582,4585,4584,4192,1850,4588,1847,668,4586,4587,4581,4580,4418],"class_list":["post-8979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","tag-a-view-to-a-kill","tag-octopus","tag-the-spy-who-loved-me","tag-4192","tag-andrew-v-mclaglen","tag-david-nivem","tag-gregory-peck","tag-james-bond","tag-john-glen","tag-lewis-gilbert","tag-pinewood-studios","tag-roger-moore","tag-sean-connery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8979","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=8979"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8994,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8979\/revisions\/8994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}