Daniel Craig and Sean Connery get all the respect, but this 007’s winking humor charmed a generation.
“Can I get you a drink, Mr. “I’ll have a…Bloody Mary.”
Roger Moore is sitting in the posh dining room of New York City’s St. Regis hotel.
Credit: Platon for EW
Seated next to him is his fourth wife, Kristina, a lovely blonde with a vaguely European accent.
Every eye in the room is on him.
Middle-aged men and their wives crane their necks just to hear his voice.
Everett Collection
This is what it is to be in the elite fraternity of actors who have played James Bond.
Adjectives almost fail to do justice to Moore’s speaking voice.
It’s a purr coated in honey and caramel and molasses.
Everett Collection
He is 81 and has a leathery tan.
the last of his seven debonair, sardonic turns as 007.
I was 8 years old when I saw my first James Bond film.
It was the summer of 1977.
Moore was the first Bond I knew.
But they didn’t compare.
They just seemed like smudgy Xeroxes of the Bond I’d first seen in the theater.
And where was thefun?
Sure, Connery was more dangerous, rougher around the edges, deadlier with a Walther PPK.
Moore had the good luck to play Bond during the last gasp of the Cold War.
But most of Moore’s Bond flicks were catnip to boys who hadn’t discovered girls yet.
InLive and Let Die, he got entangled in Caribbean voodoo.
InThe Man With the Golden Gun, the villain had a superfluous nipple.
But served up with just the right amount of ham, thanks to Moore.
Moore played 007 more times than any other actor.
By rights of possession, he owns the part.
He’s serious, flawed, and, if you ask me, kind of a drag.
The knock on Moore has always been that he played the character too lightly.
He was too arch.
But that seems a bit rigid.
Moore’s Bond films grossed $1.2 billion worldwide.
As far as I’m concerned, Moore is, was, and will always be Bond.
It’s not a critical argument, just one from the heart.
He needs to hear this.”
After ordering a couple of insanely expensive hamburgers, Moore and I dig into his double-0 legacy.
Moore is aware of his lightweight, also-ran reputation within the Bond universe.
And he’s actually damn proud of it.
“To be associated with success is absolutely wonderful,” he says.
Moore has just published a new memoir calledMy Word Is My Bond.
The timing is no accident.
Moore also tells a story that should get the legions of Connery purists shaken and stirred too.
Namely, that he was considered for the role of 007 in 1962’sDr.
Nobefore Connery was tapped.
“That’s what they told me, at least,” he says.
“They also said I was Ian Fleming’s first choice.
But Ian Fleming didn’t know me from s. He wanted Cary Grant or David Niven.”
So that’s what I did.
Come on, it’s all a big joke!
So most of the time I played it tongue-in-cheek."
Moore is the first to admit he’s no Olivier.
Well, second, after the critics who crucified him as 007.
When asked about this bit of self-deprecation, he adds, “I can also wiggle my ears.”
For years my agents would tell me, ‘You’ve got to stop saying these things about yourself.
People will believe you.’
They may also be pleasantly surprised!"
Actually, Moore says that he did bring one bit of Method acting to the role of Bond.
“If you watch those scenes, you’ll see I look mildly repulsed.”
When I ask Moore if he felt any competitiveness with Connery at the time, he smiles.
“No more than two jockeys who are going to be paid anyway for running the race.
But it would be nice if you won because you’d get the extra bonus.
But really, no more than that.
Sean and I are friends.”
As he finishes this sentence, a stranger comes over to our table.
It’s Placido Domingo.
Moore gets up, and the two go off to the side of the room to catch up.
Of course they do.
Then I ask her where she and Moore live.
She replies, “We spend the summers in Monaco and the winters in Switzerland.”
What did you expect?
When Moore returns to the table, he launches into his reasons for leaving the franchise.
“It had been on my mind for a long time,” he says.
“I became very conscious that I was getting long in the tooth to play the great lover.
Not that I ever needed Viagra,” he says, shooting a rascal’s grin at his wife.
“I was 57 in the last one.
you’re free to see I was getting a little scraggy around the neck.”
“I was not born with tremendous ambition,” he admits.
“And thank God, because my contemporaries who had ambition are all dead.
It can kill you.”
He’s too diplomatic for that, too classy.
But I ask again.
“Okay, I’ve seen Daniel’s Casino Royale, and I thought it was bloody good!
They went too far.”
However, he says, “in 47 years they haven’t made many mistakes with the Bond franchise.
They’re clever enough to sense a trend.
And the trend right now is for hard, gritty Bond.”
He thinks about it for a minute, then seems to grow frustrated.
“People are always reading things into the films,” he says.
“But we set out to make entertainment.
There’s no hidden agenda.
That’s as deep as they got.”
Just then, a man in his 40s approaches.
He hovers behind Moore, waiting for the right moment to say something.
Finally, Moore turns around and shoots him a “Can I help you?”
The man stammers and clears his throat.
Could you say something anything?"
Moore takes his napkin from his lap and slowly folds it.
“Thank you, that’s very nice of you.”
The man walks away, giggling, a childlike smile on his face.
I ask Moore if he ever gets tired of this.
He almost chokes on his Bloody Mary.
“Are you kidding?
I’m damn lucky!”
Then comes the old Moore quip.
“…I’ve been lucky, said the man as he stepped into the street.”
He crashes his hands together, mimicking the impact of an oncoming bus.
His wife and I politely laugh.
But our reaction isn’t hearty enough.
So he calls upon the deadliest weapon in his arsenal and cocks his left eyebrow.
Talk about a license to kill.
