George Lazenby, a plain-spoken Australian who played Bond a
single time in the 1969 movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” happily
detailed his sexual conquests and disdain for his leading lady and director on
Wednesday.
But when he was asked during a Q&A for his thoughts on
the future of the Bond franchise, he was decidedly blunt.
“Y’know, I couldn’t give a s***,” he said, to much laughter
during an exchange that following a screening of the film.
The producers of the next Bond feature, known as “Bond 23,”
announced in April that development had been suspended “indefinitely,” while
debt-ridden studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc seeks a lifeline.
It could be several years before fans get a follow-up to
2008’s “Quantum of Solace.” Daniel Craig, who revived the almost 50-year-old
franchise with 2006’s “Casino Royale,” has moved on to other projects in the
meantime.
Lazenby, now 71, has moved on as well. But he gamely
answered fans’ questions about his experience in one of the more unusual films
in the Bond franchise.
The melodrama saw his character escape from a mountaintop
aerie to marry the daughter of a villain only to see her die in his arms as
they were leaving the wedding.
“Too bad I couldn’t act, but it was fun,” Lazenby said,
explaining that his arrogance and sure way with women helped get him the
coveted role previously held by Sean Connery.
Asked about his sexual conquests during his glory days, the
former model said, “I don’t want to brag too much, but at least one a day.”
His on-screen love interest, Diana Rigg, was not one of
those. He described her as “a tough nut,” who warned him against sleeping with
so many women on the set. A chill set in once she caught him rolling about with
a hotel receptionist on a mattress used by stuntmen, he recalled.
Relations with director Peter Hunt were similarly frosty, he
said. The two did not speak at all during shooting, although Lazenby did not
see this as a problem. “I didn’t know the director had to talk to me.”
Lazenby said he was “a dumb s***” for leaving the Bond
series. “On the other hand, I wasn’t, because I could have had four or five or
15 houses in Beverly Hills with different wives living in them, (been) a drug
addict or me now, who missed out on everything and had to survive.”
In reality, he has just two ex-wives, and joked that the
second one, former tennis champ Pam Shriver, “wants to kill me.”
He recalled that an adviser told him, “Bond is over,
finished. It’s Sean Connery’s gig. You cannot match that guy.” But when he
sought work in other movies, he said producers were afraid to hire him because
they wrongly thought he was under contract to do more James Bond movies.
His money ran out as his acting offers dried up, and he
ended up living with his mother back in rural Australia. But he said his days
are busy now with the three young children that he had with Shriver. A memoir
is in the works, and a filmmaker wants to make a documentary about him, he
added.
As for the best Bond? “Realistically” it was Connery,
Lazenby said, but noted: “If I was allowed to be who I am now at that age, I
think I could have given him a run for his money.”
