Robert Carlyle has revealed random stars appeared on the James Bond set. The 62-year-old actor played Victor ‘Renard’ Zokas, a former KGB agent turned high-tech terrorist, alongside Pierce Brosnan’s 007 in 1999’s ‘The World Is Not Enough’, and he very nearly told former England goalkeeper David Seaman to move out of the way when he was shooting a scene with the lead star.
He told Total Film magazine: “It kind of felt like you were working for MI6! The way people appeared on set – that was extraordinary. One day, I was in a scene with Pierce Brosnan, and I noticed that this person was quite close as we were in the middle of a take. I was distracted by this. I was going to turn around and go, ‘Excuse me.’ And it’s f [footballer] David Seaman, standing there!”
The ‘Beach’ actor admits he struggled to get roles after being typecast as a villain for his portrayal of Begbie in Danny Boyle’s 1996 black comedy classic ‘Trainspotting’, but that changed after he starred in 1977’s comedy ‘The Full Monty’ as former steelworker Gary ‘Gaz’ Schofield.
He said: “Obviously, I was delighted with the success of Trainspotting. But for about four or five years after that, the scripts coming through were like Begbie 1, Begbie 2, Begbie 3… I thought, ‘I can’t get stuck here?’ I was lucky that the next thing I did was The Full Monty. I was seen as an actor, rather than just someone who plays a villain.”
However, he has reprised the role of the psycho in an upcoming TV version of Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’ sequel ‘The Blade Artist’.
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