Moore doesn't like new Bond

2008-11-12 10:01

New York - Modern movie audiences expect scenes of graphic violence in James Bond movies, unlike when Roger Moore played the super spy with a tongue-in-cheek humour, the actor believes.

"I am happy to have done it, but I'm sad that it has turned so violent," Moore said before Quantum of Solace, starring Daniel Craig as a darker Agent 007, opens in North America on Friday.

"That's keeping up with the times, it's what cinema-goers seem to want and it's proved by the box-office figures," Moore told Reuters in an interview about his memoir, My Word is My Bond.

The movie opened in London on October 31, breaking the British weekend box-office record with a gross of $25m. It has taken in more than $106m worldwide so far.

Moore, 81, recalled being appalled at the violence in A View to a Kill, the 1985 movie which was the last of the seven in which he played Bond. "That wasn't Bond," he said.

Distaste for guns

In his book, Moore writes of his distaste for guns, ever since he was shot in the leg by a friend with a BB gun as a teenager.

While making The Man With the Golden Gun, director Guy Hamilton wanted Bond to be tougher and had him threaten to break Maud Adams' character's arm to get information, he writes. "That sort of characterisation didn't sit well with me, but Guy was keen to make my Bond a little more ruthless.

"I suggested my Bond would have charmed the information out of her by bedding her first. My Bond was a lover and a giggler, but I went along with Guy," the British actor wrote.

Moore has not yet seen Quantum of Solace, but based on Craig's first Bond film, Casino Royale, believes it will be a success in North America too.

"Daniel has done one Bond and he was in Munich and... he's done a lot of stuff, but his face, after one Bond film, that's all he needs. He is Bond."

Asked about his own legacy as an actor known mostly for playing Bond and in TV series such as The Saint, Moore said: "I would love to be remembered as one of the greatest Lears or Hamlets. But as that's not going to happen I'm quite happy I did Bond."

His memoir is full of anecdotes about Hollywood and the stars he worked with such as Vivien Leigh, Mae West and Lana Turner. He also tells of his bust-up with Grace Jones during the filming of A View to a Kill, when he forcibly pulled the plug on her stereo and flung a chair against the wall because she was playing loud rock music.

- Reuters