Paul Giamatti Wants To Play A Bond Villain And Has Two Requests For The Role
James Bond is currently in limbo. Following the end of the Daniel Craig era, no one is quite sure what long-time producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have in store for the next 007 installment, and it might be some time before we find out.
In the meantime, several actors have been touted as frontrunners to don the tux. But what about the villain? Bond antagonists are almost as important as the man himself, and there's no shortage of actors who'd be willing to play one. Brian Cox, for example, mistakenly thought he was about to be the next Bond villain when he got the call for "007: Road to a Million." Speaking to Jimmy Fallon (via The Hollywood Reporter), Cox said, "For years I thought, 'Yeah, I'd love to be a James Bond villain. It'd be really interesting.' And I thought, 'This is my moment.' But it wasn't."
Well, it seems Cox isn't the only one with ambitions to play a Bond foe. Paul Giamatti, star of Alexander Payne's marvelous "The Holdovers" has not only expressed his interest in facing off against 007, but has now revealed two very specific requests for the role.
Giamatti's ideal Bond villain
When Paul Giamatti joined season 2 the HBO series "30 Coins" he had a very solid reason for wanting to play antagonist Christian Barbrow. As the actor told Bloody Disgusting:
"I was like, 'Oh, it's like a Bond film. Sure, I'll do this, absolutely.' Yeah, no question about it. He's a Bond villain. This is my shot at playing a Bond villain. I'm never going to play a Bond villain other than this."
Clearly, then, Giamatti is harboring a desire to play a James Bond villain — though considering we've had no official word on who'll be playing the next Bond beside the confirmation that it won't be Taron Egerton, at this point Giamitti might as well throw his hat in the ring for 007 himself. For now, the "Holdovers" star has at least given us an insight into what he'd do in the role of a Bond villain. Speaking to GQ, the actor said:
"I'd want an accent of some kind. I'd definitely want an accent. It'd be nice to have an animal with me of some kind. Not necessarily a cat, but something. Any animal, maybe. Not a parrot or something. Something real. I don't know. An accent, though, of some kind I'd have to have. A guy who's all in fur coats and stuff like that? Be great."
So Blofeld, then — he wants to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Well, maybe not quite, but he's definitely taking some cues from the most iconic Bond villain. Though, it should be said, Giamatti's comments are clearly tongue-in-cheek, perhaps because he thinks there's absolutely no chance of him actually playing a Bond antagonist.
The next Bond villain remains classified
Would Paul Giamatti be all that bad a choice for a Bond villain? Perhaps it's the lingering shadow of Logan Roy or the fact that, like Sean Connery, Brian Cox is a proud Scot, but I think I'd rather see the "Succession" actor facing off against England's greatest spy to be honest. Still, if you're looking for an actor to play a Bond villain, you could do a lot worse than Oscar-nominated star Paul Giamatti, even if it is hard to shake the image of him as Ebenezer Scrooge and Einstein in those Verizon commercials.
If, on the off-chance Giamatti does play the next Bond villain, it's unlikely to be Blofeld. The character has been played by nine separate actors across the 007 saga, including Donald Pleasence, Max von Sydow, Telly Savalas, and most recently Christoph Waltz in the Daniel Craig movies. Broccoli and Wilson will likely pivot away from the most infamous foe in franchise history for the next incarnation of Bond, though at this point we still don't really have any idea what to expect from the next era of 007 movies beyond the fact that the next film is years away.
After Rami Malek was criminally underused as Lyutsifer Safin in the divisive "No Time to Die," whatever the producers choose to do next will likely be a big upgrade. For now, those who'd love to see Giamatti as a Bond villain will just have to rewatch "30 Coins."