{"id":594808,"date":"2026-04-20T03:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/594808\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T03:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:02:08","slug":"why-charlies-angels-star-jaclyn-smith-turned-down-playing-a-bond-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/594808\/","title":{"rendered":"Why ‘Charlie’s Angels’ star Jaclyn Smith turned down playing a Bond girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jaclyn Smith <\/a>revealed she turned down an opportunity to play a\u00a0Bond girl\u00a0in \u201cMoonraker\u201d because of her Texas upbringing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a contract [for \u2018Charlie\u2019s Angels\u2019] and, you know, Houston upbringing, you follow your contract,\u201d the actress, 80, said at PaleyFest\u2019s \u201cCharlie\u2019s Angels\u201d 50th anniversary\u00a0reunion<\/a>. \u201cAnd Aaron [Spelling] was the first to invite me to the party, so I was honoring my contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think it wasn\u2019t meant to be. I think things happen for a reason, I really do, so I have no complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was offered the part of Dr. Holly Goodhead in the 1979 Bond film starring Roger Moore. The part eventually went to \u201cThe Way We Were\u201d actress Lois Chiles.<\/p>\n

Smith also revealed that she was considered for \u201cBeetlejuice,\u201d a concept she admitted she \u201cdidn\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, sad. My husband regrets that,\u201d she added, reacting to the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you read a script, and it doesn\u2019t always ring true to you, and it\u2019s about what you can bring to it,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Smith didn\u2019t say what \u201cBeetlejuice\u201d part she was considered for. The film\u2019s female leads ultimately ended up being\u00a0Catherine O\u2019Hara, Geena Davis and a young Winona Ryder.<\/p>\n

Smith added that, at one point, she and\u00a0John Travolta\u00a0were supposed to star opposite each other in the erotic romance \u201c9\u00bd Weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaclyn Smith at PaleyFest LA for the 50th anniversary reunion of \u201cCharlie\u2019s Angels\u201d on April 6, 2026. FilmMagic<\/p>\n

Smith starred alongside Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett in \u201cCharlie\u2019s Angels.\u201d \u00a9Columbia Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I wasn\u2019t really right for that one either,\u201d she admitted. \u201cSo, that was Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. You know, it happens. But, you know, I think, certainly, I look at my life as what\u2019s meant to be will be, and it\u2019s been a good journey. It\u2019s really been a good journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also starred in the critically acclaimed TV movie \u201cJacqueline Bouvier Kennedy,\u201d \u201cThe Bourne Identity\u201d miniseries in 1988 and had recurring roles on \u201cBecker,\u201d \u201cThe District,\u201d \u201cCSI: Crime Scene Investigation\u201d and \u201cAll American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith also said that \u201cCharlie\u2019s Angels\u201d was originally aired as a two-part movie, and even as its audience grew, the network \u201cdidn\u2019t believe in the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith revealed she turned down a role as a Bond girl in \u201cMoonraker\u201d to keep working on \u201cCharlie\u2019s Angels.\u201d \u00a9Aaron Spelling Prods\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

Lois Chiles would eventually star alongside Roger Moore as Dr. Holly Goodhead in \u201cMoonraker\u201d in 1979. United Artists<\/p>\n

\u201cIt went through the roof,\u201d Smith said of the pilot episode, \u201cand they thought, \u2018This is a fluke, we gotta do it again. This can\u2019t be. No one\u2019s going to \u2014 this doesn\u2019t have endurance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the network aired the pilot for a second night to even\u00a0higher ratings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s Aaron\u2019s genius,\u201d she mused. \u201cI think he had an instinct about what the public wanted to see.<\/p>\n

Smith with Kate Jackson and Cheryl Ladd at PaleyFest LA. FilmMagic<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I didn\u2019t understand the network not \u2014 his track record was amazing. They just thought these women in men\u2019s roles, this is not going to work. They didn\u2019t even order a full season of episodes.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the show remained in the top 10 that the network finally realized they had a hit, she said.<\/p>\n

Kate Jackson <\/a>also lamented that she wasn\u2019t able to star in the 1979 film \u201cKramer vs. Kramer\u201d part that went to Meryl Streep, who ended up winning her first Academy Award for the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey changed the schedule for the movie four times,\u201d a frank Jackson told moderator George Pennacchio after asking him, \u201cDo you want the truth?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd every time Aaron would look at the \u2018Charlie\u2019s Angels\u2019 schedule and say, \u2018Ah, gee, we had to change our schedule. Now it doesn\u2019t work here, here and here. So, he didn\u2019t let me do it. So, I decided then, \u2018I\u2019ll do this year and then, adios.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaclyn Smith revealed she turned down an opportunity to play a\u00a0Bond girl\u00a0in \u201cMoonraker\u201d because of her Texas upbringing.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,91,222331,88,251194,37117,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-594808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-celebrity-news","10":"tag-classic-television","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jaclyn-smith","13":"tag-james-bond","14":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}