1967: Connery says 007 had become a ‘Frankenstein’

While viewing something Bond-related on YouTube, the blog came across something else — a 1967 interview Sean Connery gave to attorney F. Lee Bailey.

“How long are you going to be James Bond?” Bailey asks.

“As long as they keep releasing and re-releasing the films that I’ve made,” Connery replies. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m finished with the James Bond…I’ve stated my terms that I would take one million pounds tax free to do another one.”

“I don’t think anybody would pay that amount,” Connery adds following another question or two from Bailey.

The 32:31 video was posted by Historic Films Stock Footage Archive. The video actually consists of two versions of the interview. The quotes above are from the second version.

Bailey, in the first version, gets a couple of details wrong. In setting up a question, the attorney says Connery identified himself in Dr. No as “James Bond,” while in the second, he quotes the line correctly as, “Bond, James Bond.” Also, in the first interview, Bailey says Bond shot Dr. Dent in the head in Dr. No. Connery corrects him.

Connery also describes why he was tiring of the role.

“It’s some sort of Frankenstein,” Connery says in the first version of the interview.

“As far as being an actor is concerned, it begins to go off a bit,” he says in the second version. “I don’t think there have been any other films that have created a phenomena as the James Bond…There are only so many things one can do as far as the character is concerned.”

Connery also compliments Terence Young for the way he directed Dr. No and says “the second one” (From Russia With Love) was the best Bond film up to that point.

Here’s the video: