Combining a documentary and narrative approach, Hulu's new film Becoming Bond chronicles the life of George Lazenby, the roguish Australian male model-turned-actor who succeeded Sean Connery in the role of James Bond.
Having never acted before in his life, Lazenby won the role of cinema's most famous secret agent but only played the role once, in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. According to Lazenby, he turned his back on fame and fortune, rejecting a multi-picture and $1 million offer to return as 007. (The franchise ultimately wooed Connery back for one more film before Roger Moore took over the role.)
Becoming Bond is built around Lazenby recalling his life -- from his impoverished, problem child youth in Australia to his days as a mechanic and car salesman to finally his accidental career as a male model and then, of course, the big screen's second James Bond -- and love affairs, which are all reenacted in largely comedic fashion in scenes starring Josh Lawson (Superstore, House of Lies) as Lazenby.
I sat down with Lazenby and Becoming Bond director/exec producer Josh Greenbaum this week to discuss the film and Lazenby's wild ride of a life and career. Here's what they had to tell me ...
IGN: Mr. Lazenby, when you were approached about doing a sort of pseudo-documentary where they're going to also reenact events, what were thoughts about that? "Somebody playing me? Nobody could possibly be me except me."
George Lazenby: I didn't even think about that. How much you gonna give me? No, I talked to (the filmmakers) four or five times. And they seemed to have their s**t together. So why not? You know, they'll never find anyone that looks like me. Or as good-looking as me. Or has charisma like me or chemistry like me. So it will just show them that I'm one of a kind. (laughter)
Josh Greenbaum: Well, the film will stop and we can't cast him and then it will prove that George is one of a kind and the project will be done!
IGN: When did you actually first start thinking about doing a project like this?
Greenbaum: So we have a mutual friend, David de Rothschild, who has known George for years and I've known for a couple of years. … David introduce me to George and you know he knew I was a documentary filmmaker and said, “You know, George has got incredible stories. I think you should meet with him.” Because I was figuring out what my next project was going to be. And so I, of course, knew of George and knew of a little bit of the folklore that existed online. You know, when you're trying to get some information on George it's kind of hard. There's a lot of information out there, a lot of legend. So I was very excited for that first lunch and we sat down and we talked for two and a half hours over beers.
And we got to age 12 of George's stories, like nowhere near Bond, I was completely hooked because as I've said, he lived a life worthy of -- it's a great story but more importantly what hooked me in more was how gifted of a storyteller George is. And from that the whole structure and idea of the film of just talking to him, letting him tell his story and then reenacting it with really fun, talented comedic actor people to play out those scenes was all born in that very first meeting.
IGN: In a lot of the interviews I've seen you do in the past, you do seem to chalk things up to basically, “I never really wanted to be an actor.” You kind of went out for it as a lark. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Lazenby: It was a lark about being an actor, but it wasn't a lark when they said, "I think you're right for the role of James Bond.” That wasn't a lark. I wanted to be James Bond.
IGN: As soon as you heard, 'We want you to be Bond," what clicked inside you?
Lazenby: I was wondering why they didn't decide straight away. It took four months for them to make up their minds. And there were three thousand of us looked at. Three hundred tested on film and no other [screen] test in the history of the world has been anywhere close. When they said, “We're going with you,” my line was, “It's about time. Oh, thank you very much.” (laughter)
IGN: Isn’t a little arrogance needed for Bond, right?
Lazenby: Absolutely. But, you know, I was every day wondering what I'm going to do. I'm sitting in this room told where to go test. Next day told where to go to test and then where to go to test. And then United Artists say, “We want to see him do a fight scene.” Peter Hunt [the director] says, “He's Australian. Every Australian can fight.” “No, we want to see it.” So then I had to go and do that. And that's when they walked over the body of the wrestler I knocked out. I'd never done stunt work. And they said, “We're going with you.” And I said, “It's about time.” And they said, “What?” And I said, “Oh, thank you very much.”
IGN: Josh, how tough was it for you to find an actor to play George? That's that's a tall order because not only do you have to play the man who becomes Bond, but in a way you're still having to play Bond.
Greenbaum: As much as George was joking that it would be a very tall order to try to find somebody who could play him, he's right. He is an incredibly unique character and person, both obviously in looks but also in personality. There's a machismo that George just has. I mean he's from rural Australia, got into a bunch of fights when he was younger and has this rough element. And then as you'll see in the film there's also an incredibly emotional, romantic side to George that I've certainly got to know. And so that's a hard kind of role to cast. We got very very lucky I felt like with finding Josh Lawson, who did a great job, and you can certainly ask George's opinion on it, but I think [Lawson] captured the spirit of George.
But what's unique, and Josh can tell you this, is he never was playing George. He didn't watch tapes of George and there is a lot of archival in the film. You do see real footage of George himself from 1968, '69. But Josh never watched any footage and that was intentional. What he was always playing, and my intention behind it was, he's playing George's memory of himself. Because George is telling us the story as he recalls it. And so we weren't matching and trying to do what a lot of biopics do which is pitch perfect accuracy of studying the tapes and getting it exactly right. So obviously we wanted him to look the part and that was a challenge because Josh is blond and blue-eyed but he has a strong jaw and the [dimpled] chin. He's a good-looking guy but he's no George! (laughter)
IGN: The Bond legacy now is over 50 years-old. What do you think it is about that character that it's still around in the 21st century when so many other characters have fallen by the wayside, including a lot of the ones that tried to imitate Bond?
Lazenby: It's very simple to me. I mean, he gets the girl. He wins at gambling. And he shoots anybody that gets in his way. Every man would love that. It's like a perfect thing, you know? That's what Ian Fleming created. And he's smart. It's all the qualities that every man would like to have. And you know Donald Trump's trying but he hasn't done it!
Greenbaum: In many ways, and you'll see in the film, what's always amazed me is George actually embodied a lot of those traits before he was anywhere near Bond. And one of the titles we played with was “Bigger Than Bond” because in many ways, as he'll tell you and you see in the film, he was living as exciting if not more a life prior to the role and even after the role. So that's kind of interesting as well.
IGN: Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say in past interviews that you didn't care if you played the role again? Times were changing then. That you wanted to live your life. And weren't you steered sort of towards no [by his agents]?
Lazenby: That was the environment. It was hippie time. You know, I could get laid five times more with bell bottoms than I could with tight pants. I could go into a restaurant dressed as James Bond and they'd go, "Waiter!" Everyone's got these earrings and flowered shirts and long hair. And you'd have to live that time to know. Even Wall Street took off its ties. It was amazing how everyone was make love not war. Easy Rider was the hit movie in those days. Guys were riding around on motorcycles going to Woodstock. So that type of thing. You know, Woodstock was five hundred thousand people without a cop. You can't do that today. You'd have to have five hundred thousand cops!
IGN: Did he hold out on any good stories to you from those lunches? When you finally plunked the camera down in front of him, were there any surprises?
Greenbaum: I mean there are so many stories. George lived such an incredible life. I told him his first 12 years of life in that first lunch I had with him were more interesting and engaging than my 37 so far! You'll see in the film a little bit of it. There were so many incredible stories that, of course, in a 92-minute film we had to cut out and we really focused on I thought the stories that spoke the most to his character —
Lazenby: I didn't tell you any of the illegal ones!
Greenbaum: There were some and he's aware, I mean, look, when you're doing a subject who's still alive, who's part of the project, I think there were certain things that he was aware of in terms of his children watching the film. But what was also really nice is he didn't hold back that way. What I actually loved about — we had four or five lunches because he was hemming and hawing about doing it. That was a good sign to me. A lot of reality stars are just like, “Point the camera at me. I'm ready to tell you whatever.” And he was hesitant and reticent and I think that was good because I think he -- correct me if I'm wrong, George -- I think you kind of always knew you were going to tell me the truth. And you have to decide whether or not you want that in a movie.
Lazenby: The only thing that works is the truth. I can't remember the lies. When I used to bulls**t people? It wouldn't work. If they didn't find out then they'd find out the next year and they'd hate you for it. So you had to be level with people. And I've found that if you're level with people at least you get through life living your own truth, whether it's good or bad.
Becoming Bond begins streaming on Hulu on May 20.
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