Almost 20 years ago, we got the best Bond movie ever made with 2006’s “Casino Royale.” After more than 40 years of the Bond saga, Daniel Craig and the Bond producers pulled off a truly impressive feat by reinventing the super spy for a whole new generation. Taking cues from the genre-redefining grittiness of “The Bourne Identity,” “Casino Royale” introduced a Bond for the post-9/11 world — a tortured loner who exuded an incongruously intense insouciance. While Craig could project the 007 cool the character was known for, he also seemed to be seething in some awful way just below the surface.
Sadly, as more Craig-led movies arrived, they got progressively worse, culminating in the absurd finale of “No Time to Die,” in which the tortured loner introduced in “Casino Royale” goes out in spectacular fashion after being blown up in a torrent of ballistics. It was a sad end to a Bond tenure that began as well as it possibly could. But things almost didn’t play out this way at all. In fact, we came very close to an entire alternate history in which a young lad from the Channel Islands would have donned the tux instead.
Back in 2022, it was confirmed that Craig’s main competition for the lead role in “Casino Royale” was Henry Cavill, and ever since, we’ve heard more and more about the actor’s never-realized Bond. Following Craig’s retirement from the lead role, there have been renewed calls for Cavill to be considered, with the actor himself even admitting he’d still be open to the prospect of playing 007. Meanwhile, “Casino Royale” director Martin Campbell maintains Cavill would have made a great Bond, claiming the actor “looked great in the audition” and praising his “tremendous” acting. According to Campbell, Cavill was “a little young” at the time, which is why he just missed out on the role. But now the British star’s audition tape has leaked and, well, you can be the judge of whether Campbell is correct or not.
Henry Cavill’s Bond audition proves Daniel Craig was the right choice
Though we’ve heard much about how Henry Cavill was in the running for Bond and how good he would have been, we’ve never actually seen any footage of him performing as 007. The closest we got was 2015’s Cavill-led box office bomb “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” in which the British actor portrayed American agent Napoleon Solo but was essentially showcasing his abilities as a quasi-Bond. Now, however, we actually have his “Casino Royale” audition tape, and without being needlessly mean, it’s perhaps not quite as “tremendous” as Martin Campbell would have us believe.
The audition leaked on YouTube and sees a 22-year-old Cavill perform dialogue from 1995’s “Goldeneye,” another Campbell-helmed Bond entry. That means we get to see Cavill deliver classic 007 lines such as, “Vodka martini, shaken not stirred” and, “Bond, James Bond.” Unfortunately, it’s all a bit awkward and if nothing else, proves that producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were right to go with Craig — not that Cavill himself has ever disagreed.
The actor previously told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that while it came down to just him and Craig back in 2005, he admitted that he “wasn’t ready at the time.” I think it’s fair to say that’s evident from the tape, which shows a long-haired Cavill remaining oddly still as he reads the lines, barely moving his head throughout the scene. Though there are flashes of charisma (mostly conveyed through some expressive eyebrow work from the actor), his overall delivery is surprisingly wooden and reserved. While that might have translated to a certain kind of intensity on the big screen, it’s not clear at all that his restrained take on the material was working in the audition room.
Meanwhile Anthony Starr’s James Bond audition leaked online, causing “The Boys” fans to go wild. Starr was one of numerous other actors who auditioned for “Casino Royale,” alongside Sam Worthington and Rupert Friend, but there’s no doubt that Craig was the man for the job, even if he did everything he could to sabotage his casting as 007.