Movies - TV
Die Another Day Kept A Scene Michael Madsen Was Sure Would Get Cut
By MATTHEW BILODEAU AND HANNAH SHAW-WILLIAMS
In Pierce Brosnan's final outing as 007 in "Die Another Day," Michael Madsen plays an NSA agent named Damian Falco, who is the boss of Halle Berry's Jinx. However, Madsen did something in a brief scene that he apparently thought would cause the entire moment to end up on the cutting room floor.
In a 2015 interview, Madsen talked about how he wasn't sure if he would be able to light up in the scene, saying: "I know not many people smoke cigarettes in movies anymore, especially not in a Bond film and the way they are nowadays.” Madsen said the crew went into a panic: "I pulled it out to light it, and everyone's, like, 'Whoa, hey, hey, hey, oh, no, no, no ...'”
It was Dame Judi Dench who stuck up for the actor's decision, saying to the director that she didn’t see anything wrong with his character smoking and that it felt right for the scene, to which the director agreed. Bond films often have a charming levity about them, so keeping in a U.S. agent inappropriately smoking in an underground bunker was definitely on brand.