Movies - TV
Sean Connery Made Two Demands Before Signing On To Play James Bond
By RYAN SCOTT
Sean Connery wasn’t a well-known actor when he was cast as James Bond in 1962’s “Dr. No,” but he had a couple of demands that needed to be met before agreeing to take the part.
Connery told Bond producer and franchise stalwart Albert “Cubby” Broccoli that he “would be interested [in the role] provided they put some more humour into the story.”
The actor added, “Then [Broccoli] said, when can you test? I asked what test? He said a film test. I said, sorry, but I’m not making tests. [...] Take it or leave it but no test.”
Broccoli agreed to include some humor in the film’s script, which proved to be a very wise decision. However, Connery still was not willing to do a screen test.
“Dr. No” producer Stanley Sopel said, “We did go through the motions of screen-testing some fifteen or twenty hopefuls of everybody’s idea of what Commander Bond should look like.”
Sopel added, “Had a genius come out of that testing, Connery probably wouldn’t have gotten the part, but he was it from the beginning.”