Matthew Goode has blown his chances of being cast as James Bond.
The 38-year-old actor had been hotly tipped as one of the favourites to take over from Daniel Craig as the super spy. But after an appearance on British television show This Morning on Thursday (21Apr16), it seems that the likelihood of being cast as the sleuth is well and truly over.
Matthew used the interview to talk about his criticisms of the modern Bond movies, such as Casino Royale in 2006, Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and last year’s (15) Spectre.
“I went in for (Bond) it last time and met Barbara (Broccoli, producer), who’s completely lovely, but she hasn’t brought me in this time,” Matthew admitted. “I think it will be either, you know… I think what they should do is halve the budget and reboot it. I don’t know if modern Bond is working as well.”
“Quentin Tarantino wanted to do Casino Royale in black and white and rebooted it in the Sixties and I thought, ‘What a brilliant idea it is’. It didn’t work for them but… maybe not black and white but if I had to do it I’d love to do it back then with the Cold War, you’ve got all the subject matter that would be fantastic and make sense.”
He joked after making the comment: “I’m never getting the gig now, am I?” before adding, “I don’t think I was in anyway.”
Matthew also revealed his hopes for who he thinks should land the Bond gig. While Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston and Idris Elba have all been linked to the role, Matthew thinks Idris would be brilliant.
“I think either Hardy or Hiddleston – Tom was so great in The Night Manager – or Idris, let’s have some diversity,” he said. “If we’re going to talk about it, he would be killer as a modern Bond.”
Matthew was appearing on the show to talk about his new programme The Wine Show, on which he appears with actor Matthew Rhys. He’s certainly got a fair bit on, as he will start filming movie Allied alongside Brad Pitt in the next few weeks, but he’s also keen to reprise his role as Henry Talbot in a film version of hit British television series Downton Abbey.
“I think it probably will happen,” he said. “Julian’s (Fellowes, creator) quite busy though and it’s also quite difficult with such a vast cast – to nail everybody down to a specific two weeks. It’s doable.”
“I’d love to do it because it’s just so much fun. But whether Maggie (Smith) would be in it, I don’t know, because if they’re going to set it (10 years in the future), she can’t be 130 in it…!”
