(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Mon 29 September 2025 17:45, UK
With the exception of George Lazenby, a failed experiment that will never be replicated for obvious reasons, the bare minimum requirement to play James Bond is to be a professional actor. And yet, the net was once cast so wide that a sheep farmer almost ended up with the job.
Once Lazenby’s one-and-done outing in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service saw him depart one of cinema’s most coveted roles, which led to him being branded a “prize shit” by no less of an authority than Sean Connery, the producers of the 007 series were scrambling to find a replacement.
After all, the Bond machine had become so well-oiled and lucrative that nobody wanted to hit pause on one of Hollywood’s most reliable money-spinners, leading to an extensive and exhaustive casting search that included non-actors, Americans, and, in the case of Roger Green, sheep farmers.
The New Zealand native and former rugby player had relocated to London in the 1960s in the hopes of carving out an onscreen career, but his credits amounted to a minor role in Sergei Bondarchuk’s 1970 historical epic, Waterloo, and a filmed play broadcast on the BBC, which was still enough to get him in the room with Eon Productions’ casting director.
“I proceeded to try and impress him with my acting ability by embellishing my very small acting CV,” he recalled. “I was well relieved when Cubby Broccoli said, ‘We are not so concerned with your acting ability. We’re more interested in how athletic you are.’” As an ex-rugby player, Green admitted it was “music to my ears” that his inexperience didn’t matter, and it stood him in good stead for Bond.
His next meeting saw him surrounded by the franchise’s biggest players; Broccoli, fellow producer Harry Saltzman, and regular 007 director, Guy Hamilton. “They asked me if I felt I could do this role,” Green added. “Of course, I said yes. They then handed me the script of the forthcoming screen test.”
Once he’d carried out the screen test, the filmmaker put a word in his ear: “The audition ended with Guy Hamilton saying, ‘I want to tell you, you have a great chance of getting this part. We will get back in touch with your agent. For this sheep farmer on extended holiday in the UK, this was certainly an event to cause me to walk on air for the next three months.”
Having been burned by hiring Lazenby, a model by trade who’d only appeared in commercials before landing Bond, Green’s chances weren’t great from the outside looking in. That said, Broccoli was willing to throw anything and everything at the wall to see who or what would stick in an attempt to find the one-time leading man’s replacement, until it became clear that Connery could be tempted to return for Diamonds Are Forever.
Once the original vintage acknowledged that he could be lured back into the fold, with a giant pile of money the main motivator, any chances of a sheep farmer being cast as the iconic operative went up in flames.
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