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Previously I wrote about two different love scenes, one from Goldfinger and the other from SPECTRE. I thought this time I would take a look at the two actors in those scenes, because on the surface they appear quite similar.<\/p>\n
They both came from humble roots, Connery from the rough and tumble streets of Edinburgh, Scotland and Craig claims the hard scrabble streets of Liverpool, England as the setting for his impressionable years (the truth to that claim is disputable).<\/p>\n
Both men served in the British Merchant Navy and both took various menial jobs early on. Connery delivered milk and polished coffins, whereas Craig ever one to be unoriginal, waited tables between acting gigs.<\/p>\n
Connery\u2019s breakout role was in Darby O\u2019gill and the Little People, a fantasy film about a grizzled old man\u2019s misadventures with leprechauns. Craig broke out in Layer Cake, a disjointed fever dream of a film about a grizzled drug dealer who is a leprechaun.<\/p>\n
Both men have a history of bodybuilding. Connery parleyed his physical fitness into a third place finish in the Mr. Universe competition and further into getting himself cast as Bond. Craig presumably with the help of Sylvester Stallone\u2019s chemist, pumped himself full of muscles once he was hired as Bond.<\/p>\n
All kidding aside, Connery is renowned as a salt of the earth sort of fellow and Craig has dropped more F-bombs than the Royal Air Force in the entirety of World War 2. The difference is in how these two men harnessed their uncouthness into each\u2019s portrayal of Bond and it all comes down to direction.<\/p>\n
Connery had the benefit of being taken under the wing of Terence Young, who was an actual gentlemanly rogue. He took Connery to his own tailor, his own shirt maker (Anthony Sinclair, Turnbull and Asser respectively, two brands which have become inextricably intertwined with Bond) and most importantly showed Connery how to behave like a proper gentleman. Young famously went so far as to have Connery sleep in his suits so as to grow comfortable in them. Connery\u2019s natural roughness coupled with Young\u2019s genteel tutelage combined to create the perfect cinematic interpretation of Fleming\u2019s creation. With the Connery\/Young Bond you get a sense of a hardened, tough individual under a refined, polished gentlemanly veneer, because that was precisely what he was.<\/p>\n
Looking at Craig one has to wonder what if any direction he was given. It would seem as if he was only told in the pre-production of Casino Royale, \u201clook pissed off and snarl\/mumble your lines\u201d and he\u2019s done so ever since. Craig\u2019s first Bond director was Martin Campbell who had launched Brosnan\u2019s Bond career. Whereas Pierce didn\u2019t need much direction in suave, making Campbell\u2019s job simple in that regard, Craig should have had a team of tutors. In Craig\u2019s debut as the world famous gentleman spy, he was coached on all the spy traits such as, how to grow his physique, how to properly perform his stunts and how to smash through a wall with the greatest of ease. However, no one paused a moment to consider the gentleman aspect. Craig waddles around like a boy in his father\u2019s suit snapping his lines one minute and mumbling the next, he comes off less dangerous gentleman and more fragranced gym rat, who would be more at home in a “Tapout” T-shirt than a Savile Row suit, hardly the attributes Fleming assigned his famous aristocratic secret agent.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s ironic as Craig in reality comes from much less humble beginnings than Connery, despite the appearances he claims. Craig was born in Chester a small town in the northwest of England to an art teacher mother and a father who was a landlord to two pubs. Hardly humble beginnings, yet he maintains he ran in the mean streets of London\u2019s east end because he attended drama school in that city. In reality Craig is an upper middle class drama nerd playing hard at rough and sophisticated while failing at both. On the other hand Connery was really a man of the streets who was taught to be a gentleman and Bond succeeded because of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Previously I wrote about two different love scenes, one from Goldfinger and the other from SPECTRE. I thought this time I would take a look at the two actors in those scenes, because on the surface they appear quite similar. They both came from humble roots, Connery from the rough and tumble streets of Edinburgh,…<\/p>\n