Taron Egerton has ruled himself out of playing James Bond, saying he’s “too messy” to star as the polished super spy.
Amazon MGM Studios is officially on the hunt for the next 007 after setting Denis Villeneuve as the film’s director under a producing team of Amy Pascal and David Heyman.
Egerton, 35, said he was not the right fit for the role in the post-Daniel Craig era, and that there were younger actors who should be ready to take on the challenge.
“I think I’m too messy for that. I think I’m not [the right fit]— I really love James Bond and particularly Daniel Craig’s tenure,” the Kingsman: The Golden Circle star told Collider.
“But I think I wouldn’t be good at it, and I think there’s so many cool, younger actors who would be great for it. I think it would be wasted on me, probably.”
Egerton added that Bond would be “quite an undertaking” at a stage in his career where he is keen to explore new kinds of roles.
“As far as I’m aware, nobody’s asking me to do it. But also, it’s possibly not quite the thing that would make me happiest,” he said. “It kind of consumes your life, a role like that.”
It’s not the first time Egerton, a Welshman who recently starred in Netflix hit movie Carry-On, has eschewed talk of James Bond.
In a 2023 interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said: “You have to be consistently statuesque to be that guy. And that’s something that I am still striving for. I’ve always struggled with my weight.”
Variety reported last month that Jacob Elordi, Tom Holland, and Harris Dickinson were among the names on Amazon MGM Studios’ Bond wishlist.
