George Lazenby was the youngest, the most arrogant, and the only Golden Globe nominee. Until he discovered free love and threw his career overboard.
"I was a country boy, 22, when I took a girl I really liked to see 'Dr. No.' Before I went in, I thought I had like a 90% chance with her. On the way out, I think I would have 20%. Because there was this guy who gets any girl he wants, kills everyone who gets in his way... God, I wanted to be that guy. And that's where it all started." said George Lazenby.
In 1966, sales of Ian Fleming's novels soared to seven million copies, "Thunderball" took just weeks to become the highest-grossing film of the year, and the Licensing Corporation of America raked in more than $100,000,000. in franchise-related products, giving rise to the cultural phenomenon we know as Bondmania. Even though a Variety article (quoted in 'Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable History of the James Bond Films', by Matthew Field ) spoke of Sean Connery as a "shrewd dealmaker" who had already asked for a raise, the truth is that producers Harry Saltzman and Albert "Cubby" Broccoli were the ones who, when push came to shove, shared the biggest piece of the pie, something the actor was well aware of. His salary troubles, however, went to the background when the usual team from Eon Films moved to Tokyo to shoot the annual installment of the franchise, 'You only live twice' (1967).
In Japan, Bond was bigger than the Beatles and therefore Jesus Christ. It didn't take long for Connery to realize that it was going to be literally impossible for him to move freely through the streets of the capital: on one occasion, a maddened mob lost control so much that the star arrived in the hall of his hotel with his shirt completely made. shreds. It was then that he understood that 007 was consuming him. The frantic speed with which Eon delivered films to theaters meant, in effect, that Connery was out promoting all the time he wasn't shooting, all to further line his pockets with that prig Broccoli.
The actor came to hate the man he had discovered six years earlier with such intensity that he refused to work when he was present on set. During the post-production of 'You Only Live Twice', it was already an open secret that Sean Connery was going to return his license to kill. The question was therefore whether Bondmania could survive the Scotsman who forced Fleming to change his mind about the birthplace of his literary son. Broccoli was clear about it: "I don't think Bond will become passé," he declared in those turbulent days. "No more than Sherlock Holmes or Tarzan." The mention of popular culture icons that had been embodied on the big screen by more than one actor does not seem casual. Was James Bond the character or was he the person? What was it that made the world fall in love with a secret agent?
The official version for Eon was that Bond, James Bond already existed before incarnating himself in Connery, Sean Connery, so it could also exist after him. Cubby Broccoli had already officially started the casting to find the next secret agent when she thought she recognized the guy who was getting a haircut next to her, in his trusted barbershop. George Lazenby, a former used car salesman, was 27 years old when he started working as a model for commercials. Broccoli had seen him in a chocolate Big Fry and for some reason thought he had a chance. For his part, Lazenby had been in love with the character since he saw the first film. He always said that he moved to London for a girl, but he really did it so he could look like that guy who, from the screen of his local cinema, stole his girlfriend and forever captured his imagination. "When the subject of Bond came up," he later recalled, "everything pointed to it being given to me because I wanted it more than anyone else. There was nothing else on my mind, day and night, apart from getting that paper".
Published in 1963, 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' was the novel that all fans of the character treasured. In 'The Observer', Maurice Richardson pointed out that Fleming had practiced a "deliberate moral reframing" with Bond, who had suddenly turned from a misogynistic murderer to a loyal servant of the crown who finally found love (and tragedy) in the arms of Countess Tracy di Vicenzo, the first female character in the saga capable of sublimating the "Bond Girl" archetype. So it was an excellent opportunity for the movies to reboot themselves with another figurehead, although Lazenby never exactly had it easy. When it came time to do his first screen tests at Pinewood Studios, the debutant realized that he didn't even have a dressing room. The entire team treated him as if he were simply a stunt double for Michael Gambon, John Richardson, or whoever the hell Eon had already signed to replace Connery.
In total, the pre-production process stretched over four months, during which Broccoli and Saltzman never stopped subjecting their new signing to all kinds of challenges: could he swim, dive, ride a horse, smoke, and drink as well as the previous one? The producers even sent a girl to his apartment, as they were not entirely sure about the s- of this male model. "I think they ended up pretty convinced that he was straight," he joked decades later in the documentary 'Everything or Nothing' (2012).
Finally, on October 21, 1968, the filming of '007 on Her Majesty's Secret Service began, conceived from the beginning as a celebration of the Bondian myth. The credits (accompanied, of course, by a score by John Barry ) include scenes from all the previous films, thus creating an illusion of continuity that, however, Richard Maibaum's script breaks with a joke during its run. very prologue, in which Lazenby mumbles "This never happened to the other guy" after seeing how a hit man escapes. Hunt overcompensated for Eon's fears of his new actor with a daunting wide angle, the best possible villain — Telly Savalas, taking full advantage of that Blofeld that Donald Pleasence failed to exploit in 'You Only Live Twice — such amazing locations like Piz Gloria and a deliciously pop plot that, for the first time, incorporated the Bond Girls into its own internal logic, but also granted Diana Rigg's Tracy (in vogue at the time for her work on 'The Avengers') the place of privilege that corresponds to it. Idolized by filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Steven Soderbergh, '007 On Her Majesty's Secret Service is, in many ways, the definitive Bond film.
It was also a true ordeal for George Lazenby, who never really felt comfortable with his colossal output. Much of the blame lay with Hunt, who apparently decided to isolate his protagonist from the rest of the team (in his head, 007 was a loner) and did not even have the courtesy to speak to him directly, instead all the indications were made. through an assistant. In addition, his status as a non-professional actor forced the director to use a somewhat unorthodox approach to the more dramatic scenes: for example, forcing Lazenby to appear on set first thing in the morning and having him rehearse his reaction to Tracy's murder until late in the afternoon, so I can get a close-up of him really desperate, exhausted, miserable. Although Hunt later denied that any of this was true - in fact, his chemistry with the actor was, according to his version, so good that he was willing to direct him in the next installment - the truth is that something must have happened to the new Bond during the filming of '007 on Her Majesty's Secret Service, as he did not wait for it to end to tell Broccoli and Saltzman of his decision to never play the role again.
Lazenby did not confess what actually happened until several decades later. Although the first few weeks of shooting were sewing, singing, flirting with everyone, coming to terms with the fact that his financial problems were history, and collecting invitations to absolutely every party held in continental Europe, something broke when he walked into a weapons store and the clerk insisted on giving him a Lüger, since that was James Bond's pistol. Lazenby found himself drinking too much, firing his gun during filming breaks, and brooding over the uncomfortable thought that perhaps he had sold his integrity to blockbuster producers who would never respect him. When he met Ronan O'Rahilly, the Irish businessman who founded Radio Caroline, the core of that idea reached critical mass, setting off a mental chain reaction.
O'Rahilly was already a giant on the British counterculture scene by then. His legend: the guy who went from having his own club in Soho to starting his own record label, only to discover that two major multinationals (EMI and Decca) held a monopoly on what was played on the BBC and therefore he'd have to set up his own damn radio if he wanted his artists to be heard. He bought a ship, the M.V. Caroline, and sailed from Ess-x to international waters so he could broadcast whatever he wanted, becoming the de facto patron saint of the pirate radio movement. Lazenby decided to hire him as his agent, and basically, his first piece of advice was to get out of the Eon franchise. The reasons he gave resounded in the actor's head like a shot from his Lüger: James Bond was not in step with the times, but represented the exact opposite. The 1970s, O'Rahilly explained, raged like a cyclone of free love and psychedelic colors, so he could no longer be the poster boy for the government, for repression, for institutional violence. The keyword now was peace. 007, of course, represented war.
At the time, Lazenby did not realize how an anti-establishment figure like Ronan O'Rahilly was using him to advance his political agenda. People don't want to see James Bond anymore, he told her as he pumped him with LSD. The future is 'Easy Rider' (Dennis Hopper, 1969). The future is the hippie movement. Do you intend to continue flirting with those suits and that haircut? You look like a cop, George. Try some of this, George. Following the SPECTER-worthy revolutionary counter-programming process, Lazenby showed up to the London premiere of 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' looking fresh out of Woodstock. Broccoli and Saltzman were furious, but they still hadn't heard what their star had to tell reporters: that Bond was a brute, that it was part of his past, that he was never going to associate with him again... "Peace,, "He said on the red carpet at the Odeon in Leicester Square. "That's the message now."
Diana Rigg did not get along very well with him on the set, but it was this decision to leave the saga that ended up filling the actress's patience. "I can't really talk about what's going on in George's head," he told Gene Siskel during an interview, "so I can only talk about my reaction. I think it's a stupid move. I can't go on compromising on his obsession with himself.
Shortly after the film's release, the Los Angeles Times published an interview with Lazenby. "Look at pop music and learn what's going to happen. A lot of filmmakers don't, and that's why they're not cool. I'm terribly impressed with Dennis Hopper. I'd like to work for him. I also like Arthur Penn, John Schlesinger, and Peter Yates. What I'm going to do is find a great director first and a good script second. In the meantime, it's over with Bond. I made a better living doing commercials."
