Sir Roger Moore was certainly no bore when he triumphantly took to the stage for an hour and a half chat about his career at London’s National Film Theatre on Monday evening. Looking and acting very much the British trooper that he is, Moore proved that he is one of the best known personalities on the planet with an effortless self-depreciating wit and charm that is all his own making: he certainly had the audience in hysterics for the majority of his stay.
And it just goes to show how a pretentious chat show host can get in the way of a good guest, as Moore proved that he was thoroughly entertaining and amusing without the likes of Jonathan Ross interrupting him at every turn. In my view this was by far a better (although admittingly lengthier) interview than the one on that said chat show that screened last friday night.
If he wasn’t making quips about Connery: “the credit crunch has hit Scotland: Sean has taken all his money out!” or his acting style and the lack of enthusiasm from future big name directors (I worked with Robert Altman on an episode of The Saint – but funny enough I never heard back from him again!), he mused about his old age: When his academic interviewer tried to hurry up the questions toward the end Moore gibed warmly “Yeah hurry up my bus pass is due to expire I won’t be able to get home!”
It was also great to witness his banters with some of the celebrities he had worked with, who also happened to be in the audience: Sylvia Sims (who played the Queen Mother in THE QUEEN) worked with him on a couple of episodes of The Saint and taunted him on how much of a prankster he was behind the scenes. Then there was the welcome presence of ‘first ever Bond girl’ Eunice Gayson (miss Sylvia Trench in DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE) who also starred with him as a bombshell in two other episodes.
Moore was flawless in recalling memories he had on the set in his television career on both The Saint and The Persuaders, and when he later worked with such renowned producers such as Jack Warner. He hilariously attempted to impersonate every personality he worked with and rarely struggled to remember any of the names of even the most minor of actors. Well he did struggle once but quickly followed it up by quirking: “I am 81 tomorrow do you except me to remember everything?”
Come question time things thankfully turned to the movies. He was asked about sharing the screen with Richard Harris and Richard Burton in THE WILD GEESE “why have me Roger Moore acting in a scene with these two acting giants” Roger told producers after they originally planned to have him perform in a pivotal interrogation scene with the two Irish actors. “How can I possibly compete with them?” he said demanding that they consider re-writing the scene.
He was routinely asked about which actor he aspired to in the cinema (Lawrence Olivier - “everyone wanted to speak like Olivier!”) and who he admires at the moment:“Johnny Depp is absolutely brilliant and so is Ewan McGregor but I am biased because he supports UNICEF doesn’t he! All those young gits acting me off the table, well its not hard to act me off the table is it!” And about his favourite Bond girl and the one he felt he had the most chemistry with on screen: “Well its certainly not Grace Jones!” he hilariously bellowed, later admitting that Maud Adams was his true favourite “but then I did work with her twice”.
Although I danged my arm high up in the air for everyone to see I missed out on asking him my primal question: “out of all the icons of cinema that you have worked with (amongst them Lee Marvin, Richard Burton and David Niven) who do you regret having not worked him?” But I sensed that the answer would have undoubtedly been Cary Grant – someone who could have been a bond himself. I originally intended to ask him what he thought about Daniel Craig’s incarnation of Bond and the new direction that the series has taken but Jonathan Ross had already beated me to the chase; (he anwsered by agreeing that he thinks Craig is doing a spendid job and that he throughly enjoyed CASINO ROYALE).
Roger Moore was there to promote his rather late biography MY WORD IS MY BOND (”I had to wait until everyone was dead before I could write it!“). He ended the evening telling everyone about a conversation he had with his son when he was young: “My son, as a child put me to a challenge by asking whether I could beat up everyone in the room. I looked around and saw that most of them were old and past their prime so I said ‘yeah sure’! “What about beating James Bond” he said? “Well I am James Bond – in the movies”, “no”, he said “the real James Bond: Sean Connery!”
