Austin Butler on His Chances to Play James Bond: "I Can Do an Accent"
Dune’s actor might be Amazon MGM’s next consideration for Bondiana’s revival, but Austin Butler thinks he fails at least one crucial condition.
The stakes are high now that the James Bond movie series is looking for its new super spy contender, though not everyone among Amazon MGM’s potential favorites has that much enthusiasm about playing a cult role.
For now, there have been only rumours surrounding the one who would become a new James Bond in Denis Villeneuve’s next movie, but options are numerous, considering that now the studio is eyeing someone under 30 for the franchise’s reboot.
Though there was no report about him making it to Amazon MGM’s list, Dune and Elvis’ Austin Butler might be a pretty James Bond-ish actor in many people’s eyes.
However, Butler himself doesn’t really agree with that.
Austin Butler Says Him Playing James Bond “Would Be Kind of Sacrilegious”
With his young age and numerous successful projects under his belt, the actor might seem like a good fit for becoming Bond’s next embodiment, but the main issue, according to Butler himself, lies in, well, him not being British.
“No calls as far as that goes, but I love that man. Would I play James Bond? I don’t think that would be a good idea. Because I’m an American. I can do an accent but that would be kind of sacrilegious”, Butler revealed in an interview with Hits Radio UK recently, adding that “it’s gotta be somebody who is from [England]”.
Still, it’s not like he doesn’t want to be in a James Bond movie at all — a villainous role would be just fine.
“Villain? That would be alright. I’d do that”, Butler said.
Fans See No Problem With Austin Butler Playing James Bond
Even though the role in fact belonged to the Brits for a pretty long time (with an exception of Aussie George Lazenby), some of the franchise’s fans don’t feel like it should be an exclusive national treasure — especially since the Brits never shied away from playing Americans anyway.
“RDJ was Sherlock Holmes who I would argue is just as big in the British cultural zeitgeist as is Bond. Brits play Americans all the time. I don’t see any reason an American couldn’t play Bond so long as they do a convincing accent”, Redditor Jewdius_Maximus ranted in a thread.
“Who cares what nationality they are if they can check all the other boxes. If it’s about the character being a British icon, then so was Superman for America, and he was played by a Brit without anyone feeling it was wrong”, JedM13 agreed.
“I’d take him over Tom Holland still”, jmfranklin515 chimed in.
