Michael Fassbender has revealed that he put Daniel Craig's name forward during his own audition for the role of James Bond.
Craig was formally announced to be playing the latest 007 in October 2005, eventually going on to play the MI6 spy in five films - Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die - before departing in 2021.
Much has been made of some of Craig's potential alternatives, with Henry Cavill and Hugh Jackman reportedly being close to the role, but Fassbender has revealed that he suggested Craig during his own audition for the part.
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"I met with Barbara Broccoli just you know through passing and I actually went into an audition phase before Daniel [Craig] was cast, but I don't think I was ever in the mix," recalled Fassbender during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
"But I remember going into that room and meeting with her and [Michael G.] Wilson and I think I was like, 'Daniel Craig is…' I don't know why I was promoting him. I should have been promoting myself.
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"This is what I was saying. I was terrible at auditions. Obviously Daniel did a fantastic job and went on to be, I think, the most successful Bond in history. But that was it really, there was never a conversation after that."
The future of the franchise has been up in the air since Craig's departure, with Amazon MGM Studios securing full rights to the series earlier this year. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently spoke about the future of the series, admitting that there is no plan on the "next theme".
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"We haven't – nobody's written the story yet," he said of the next film in the series. "But we will take great care. It's an amazing franchise that we care a lot about and that we expect to develop over a long period of time."
Whilst Fassbender missed out on becoming 007, the actor did recently dip his toe into the espionage genre with his role in Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag, which sees him play a spy whose wife (Cate Blanchett) is suspected of betraying the nation.
Black Bag is in cinemas now.
Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
