Mel Gibson’s dream of landing the coveted James Bond role was shattered when a producer deemed him too short to play the secret agent.
The actor was tipped to become Bond at the height of his career – but producer Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli wanted a taller star, according to scriptwriter Tom Mankiewicz, who penned The Man With The Golden Gun and Live And Let Die.
Mankiewicz explains, “At one point Mel Gibson wanted to play Bond. And Cubby was against it. Cubby first of all had a thing about tall people. Bond had to be tall. And so Mel Gibson was too short. But he was a big star.
“Somebody at (film studio) United Artists said to me, ‘Call him and tell him Mel Gibson would be great.’ And Cubby said, ‘I don’t want to make a Mel Gibson movie, I want to make a James Bond movie.’”
The snub didn’t keep Gibson from wooing one of Bond’s girls – his current partner Oksana Grigorieva has an 11-year-old son with former 007 star Timothy Dalton.
Source: Contact Music
Posted on November 10th, 2009 at 6:55 PM
This is going to be long and I’m sorry, but I have to say this:
I think it’s funny that I awoke this morning to find this story posted all over the internet. It usually takes a story a few hours to a couple of days to be picked up by so many sites. My first thought was that the story is a plant and someone is trying to re-write Mel Gibson’s history. It’s not the first time I’ve had this feeling, but this time I wanted to verbalize it.
Mel gave an interview years ago about being offered the Bond role; I’ve seen it on YouTube. The interviewer asked him about playing Bond and Gibson had said he would have felt silly and he just wasn’t interested in the part. He turned the part down and the studios moved on to someone else (might have been Pierce Brosnan).
My personal theory is that someone is behind the current press aimed at Mel. The hatred, the nitpicking, the flat-out lies are just to synchronized. Yes, I know Mel has done things to make himself look bad, but the press is making a concerted effort to make sure he is perpetually seen as evil incarnate. It appears like they are trying to take the body of work he has already accomplished away from him; trying to replace it with an image of someone who has never done anything right, who never was that good of an actor/director anyway, who never was sincerely married, who never was a good father. The picture they are trying to sell is false.
It’s sad, really. The press works to destroy him and keep those who hate him stirred up. As far as I am concerned, there are a lot of, ahem, “journalists” with blood on their hands. There is more than one way to murder a person. And the people who viciously blog on all the gossip sites are guilty too. There is a small group of absolutely deranged bloggers who seem to post on every website, frothing at the mouth as if they were married to the man.
Mel has given 30 years of his life to entertaining people. If we shelled out money to see him, it was NOT because he worked for us. It was because he was (and still is) really good at his craft. He doens’t owe anybody anything. We are NOT his employer. We are NOT his wife. We are NOT his children. We are people who like to be entertained. Gibson gave his all, and he became rich in doing that. Nobody has the right to turn around and act as if Gibson owes them anything.
In closing, I would just like to say the following: the fact that Mel gets up every morning, dresses and goes out to face the world speaks volumes. He is brave. I hope he hangs on and is able to work things out in his personal life. Whether his career continues or not, I would like his soul to be in a safe place.
Posted on November 11th, 2009 at 8:14 AM
I recall hearing Mel say the same thing–that he never wanted to be type cast in a role such as Bond, so this report of him being keen to do the role struck me as odd. I don’t think he would care much about the issue of his height–I have heard him say he was 5′8″ rather than 5′9″ as in the article–but it is true that many in the media are out for blood from this man and try to get it at every petty opportunity.
I am sad to see the worst of human nature in play when it comes to stories about Mel. Even if everything they say about him were true, how are the writers any different from what they say about him if you consider how they respond to him? Like the previous writer, I have concluded he must be very strong to survive what has been thrown at him for the last 3 years and pray he is somehow protected from the impact of the hatred that often comes his way.
Posted on November 12th, 2009 at 5:03 PM
True about the Bond role, he was not interested
(he also turned down “Gladiator” for which Russell Crowe won an Oscar). I never saw Mel as a Bond.
As for his height, in the 80s it was reported as 5′10 (maybe he shrank?? haha! actually it’s true, people do lose 1″ or more of height with age.)
For the other stuff written about him – let’s face it,he did some things that warrant the media wrath (anullment by his own church? – I still can’t wrap my brain around that one). His PR people have been doing very bad job,first denying something that later turns out to be true (ie Oksana mess,he lost credibility with the media and the public).
Mel should make some good movies, stay sober, pay child support (but not marry this golddigger
Oksana) and watch his mouth/ what he says in public/interviews (like past comments he made about gays, women and so on…including one about being a god to some women, that made him look conceited).
@ Knightslady
The bloggers you speak about, there are some that are deranged (Ocean/Sweetnut comes to mind) but also a lot of them are former fans who have been VERY dissapointed by Mel’s behaviour in recent and not so recent past. He owes them everything, without the fans he wouldn’t have the career or the money he has. Yes, he is mortal
and makes mistakes, but also he is a FAMOUS actor and how HE CHOOSES to behave/speak – be a class act or a fodder for the tabloids.
He should take a page from Tom Hanks’s book – great star, great actor and a class act too (no pregnant GF or infidelities).
And be humble.
AMEN!
Posted on November 12th, 2009 at 6:12 PM
@Robyn2…I second your comments! I am one of those former fans and have posted on blogs. Yes, Mel’s human and makes mistakes, but the Oksana scandal has “outed” this “devout Catholic/devoted family man” as a hypocrite and fraud. Rather than showing any remorse or shame he acts like he’s done nothing wrong. When Mel brought Oksana to a movie premier two weeks after his wife of 29 years filed for divorce (because he knocked up his mistress) he may as well have worn a t-shirt that said “F*** You Robyn!” I agree that Mel’s PR people have done a horrible job, which is surprising because they’ve done his damage control for years. I don’t think they realized that using the excuse that “the Gibsons have been separated for 3 years” wouldn’t cut it with much of his fan base, i.e. women, catholics/Christians, social conservatives. I also don’t understand why they waited so long to confirm the pregnancy, which was reported by the “Enquirer” and other media outlets right after the divorce was announced. And why are they letting Oksana give all these interviews in which she comes across as self-absorbed and delusional? If Mel and his PR people didn’t play so many games and tell us so many half-truths and flat-out lies, and if he had shown a little humility, I don’t there would be so much hostility on the blogs.
Posted on November 12th, 2009 at 8:02 PM
@ babstimestwo,
If I were his PR person, I would have him do another special with Diane Sawyer and let him speak about the last few years (tie it to the promo for his new movie).He should be humble, honest/truthfull and no fudging or BS like “leave it alone Diane”.
Use that interview to appologize to his family AND to his fans (yes!)for making an ass of himself in the past.
ASAP – put a muzzle on “media whore” Oksana and her constant peddling of her nonexistant “music” career, and now parading the baby in the tabloids for more attention/selfpromotion.
His career matters, her’s does not since she has none!
Posted on November 12th, 2009 at 11:50 PM
@Robyn2…I’m sure Mel will do some sort of “tell all” interview in conjunction with the release of EoD, probably with Diane Sawyer again. That HAD to be why Oksana was allowed to perform her “music” on “Good Morning America,” where she was treated as a legitimate singer/songwriter, not Mel’s baby mama mistress. Unfortunately we can’t count on him to be truthful.