Michael Fassbender is recalling his flubbed audition for James Bond.
The Inglourious Basterds star recently revealed that he met with 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson to play the iconic superspy in Casino Royale, but ultimately ended up advocating for Daniel Craig instead of fighting for the part.
“I’ve met with Barbara Broccoli just through passing, and I actually went in for an audition phase before Daniel was cast,” Fassbender said in the new episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Fassbender added that he wasn’t really in the running, though. “I don’t think I was ever in the mix,” he said. “But I remember going into that room and sort of meeting with her and Wilson, and I was like, ‘I think Daniel Craig is…’ I don’t know why I was promoting him. I should’ve been promoting myself … I was terrible at auditions.”
The Steve Jobs actor had nothing but praise for Craig, who ultimately starred in five 007 films between 2006 and 2021. “Obviously, Daniel did a fantastic job and went on to, I think, be the most successful Bond in history,” Fassbender said. “That was it, really. There was never a conversation after that.”
He also revealed that he’s not in the running to replace Craig. “I think it’s over,” he said. “It’s over.”
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However, he does have a couple of ideas for who might make a great James Bond in the future, including his Black Bag costar Regé-Jean Page. “Regé, who’s in this movie, I think after people see his performance in this, he could be a frontrunner,” he said. “I also thought Aaron Taylor-Johnson was a really good call … He works out, and he’s also very good.”
The Bond role wasn’t the only shot at a franchise lead that Fassbender fumbled. In the same interview, the X-Men: First Class star also reflected on ruining his chance to play Max in Mad Max: Fury Road after giving “one of the worst auditions” of that era of his career.
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Fassbender said he got lost on the way to the studio and got to the lot almost an hour late. “I arrived and I was like, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and they were like, ‘Fine.’ And then George Miller has this acting coach… and it was like, it was so excruciating,” he confessed. “I’ve been classically trained, so I have my process of, obviously, there’s an objective that the character has and activities that I’m gonna play to get it. So I felt like you’re teaching granny how to suck eggs here — this guy really got on my nerves.”
Watch the full Happy Sad Confused interview above.