At this point, Sam Heughan is an expert at talking about James Bond speculation. The Outlander star has long been among the bookie and fan favorites to take up the James Bond mantle once Daniel Craig retires the role following No Time to Die. Nothing is confirmed yet, of course, but Heughan has a strong spot in the running alongside other contenders like Tom Hardy, James Norton, and Bridgerton star Regé Jean-Page. What does Heughan himself think of all the Bond talk? In a new interview with Esquire UK, Heughan addresses the rumors that he will be the next 007.
Ahead of the premiere of his new action film SAS: Red Notice, Heughan talked with Esquire UK about getting into his role of Special Forces operative Tom Buckingham, a “trained killer” and “self-professed psychopath.” But, before he could be asked the million dollar question, Heughan brought up Bond on his own:
Somebody asked me earlier, “Is James Bond a psychopath?” There are a lot of high functioning, ‘good’ psychopaths, as we call them, in the military, but also lawyers, doctors, surgeons – people that have to be in these high stress situations that need to be logical, and not allow their emotions to take them over. It might be a learned behaviour, or it might be something they’ve been born with, but in a stressful situation they can turn down their empathy, they can turn up their logical thinking, or whatever it is. If they need to be charming, like maybe James Bond, you know, he could be more charming. It’s very much about them being able to just manipulate their emotions and turn them on and turn them off.
When asked if he would be interested in playing Bond, Heughan replied:
I think any actor would never say they’re not interested. Of course, you’d be interested. I mean, it is all rumors, and sometimes you think, should I, should we even talk about it? Because you don’t want to jinx it. I’m sure the people, whoever runs [Bond] – you know, Barbara Broccoli and Eon and all that – they must be sick of it; people sort of throwing their hat into the ring. But yeah, he’s a great character, and would be certainly be a fascinating character study and place to kick off. But I think in SAS we have our own authentic note based on real life scenarios, we have our authentic character, so I’d love to explore this one more.
Last year, in an episode of Esquire video series “Explain This,” Heughan revealed that he once auditioned for James Bond. “I actually have auditioned for James Bond back when they were rebooting Bond 21. When Daniel Craig came on board, they were talking about making him younger.” He added that he was a bit surprised that his name had been tossed into the ring so enthusiastically. “Very recently I became the bookie’s favorite, which is kind of random and very strange,” Heughan said.
If we’re trying to get back to Bond’s Scottish roots—the last Scotsman to fill the role was, of course, Sean Connery—who better than Heughan?
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