‘Outlander’ Star Sam Heughan Got Rejected From Playing James Bond: ‘I Wasn’t Edgy Enough They Told Me

“Outlander” served as Sam Heughan’s breakthrough acting role, but it would’ve been James Bond had he not been turned down by franchise producers. In his new memoir, “Waypoints: My Scottish Journey,” Heughan reveals he auditioned to play James Bond in “Casino Royale.” The role ended up going to Daniel Craig, who starred as 007 in a total of five Bond films.

“It was a stage in my life where I probably wasn’t ready for it,” Heughan told Entertainment Weekly. “But I wonder what would have happened if I had got it.”

Heughan writes in his memoir that his Bond audition was “so hush-hush that nobody ever confirmed that I was being considered for the main role, but I knew. Of course, it blew my mind to think I might even be in the frame for such an iconic figure…I had to remind myself to relax and let them see what I could do with the character.”

The audition took place at “Bond HQ” with a casting director and was followed by a meeting with franchise producer Barbara Broccoli and “Casino Royale” director Martin Campbell.

“We spoke a little about Scotland and about Bond, read the scene once, then I left,” Heughan writes. “It was all so quick, the sweat beneath my leather jacket just starting to form. It was all just so cool and crowned by the fact that Barbara was charming and delightful. When I left, I half wondered whether I was about to be tested with a car chase home.”

Daniel Craig ultimately got the part. Heughan writes, “When I learned the role had gone elsewhere, however, the feedback I received boiled down to the fact that I wasn’t edgy enough by nature. I’m always keen to take on criticism so I can improve as an actor, but the suggestion seemed to be that I lacked this quality in my real character. I could not see what bearing that would have on playing the role, but it was out of my hands, and meant to be.”

“It wasn’t a question of becoming a bad boy,” he continues. “I realized that the edge the Bond team sought could be achieved through self-confidence, which to be fair I was certainly lacking at the time.”

With Craig having ended his Bond tenure with “No Time to Die,” the door might be open for Heughan to finally land the part. “Maybe I’m too old now. I know that they’ve been talking about making him younger,” Heughan told EW. “I feel like that’s where they’re gonna go, but who knows what’s in their mind.”

“Waypoints” releases on October 25. 

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