Finlay Light: An Interview with the Australian James Bond

There are many showbiz stories about actors who could have played James Bond onscreen. With Daniel Craig stepping down from the role, the rumour mill has started again. One ‘he could have been Bond’ story that has always intrigued me more than the rest is that of Finlay Light. Light’s name has popped up now and again in Bond histories and chat forums. He was an Australian model who was in contention to play the role after Roger Moore stepped down in the 1980s, but not much more was publicly known about the story, including how close he came to the part. I wrote a piece a few years ago, investigating the Finlay Light rumours and appealing for more information.

Sure enough, a very close friend of Finlay’s reached out and said he would be prepared to talk to me. I had a wonderful conversation with Finlay. He’s funny, charming and intelligent, but with just the right dash of Australian abrasiveness to make for a potent Bondian mix. The story of how he was cast as James Bond, before ultimately losing the role is told by Finlay below. I came away from the interview surprised by how close he came to the part–actually, the part was officially his for awhile– and convinced he would have been a great James Bond.

Interviewer: Do you want to start by telling me about your career in the modelling industry or the acting industry, which came first?

Light: The modelling industry first. I was probably the top model in Australia, I’m not saying that to be egotistical. After Roger Moore, the Broccoli family had decided, for whatever reason, they had become (the films) mundane and they were unhappy. I thought Roger Moore, particularly when he was in The Saint, I use to think he was amazing, but the scripts became sort of comical and he didn’t fit the bill. So, there was a worldwide search for a replacement. Barbara Broccoli, who is now the producer of the Bond films, she came to Australia. It wasn’t so much a screentest, it was more like sitting in a video room and talking to the camera. Her asking questions and me responding, but not any form of performance. Anyway, she took that video back to Los Angeles and John Glen, who was then the director, he flew out to Australia, saw me, and interviewed me and we spent a couple of hours together. The Broccoli family and him decided to bring me to Los Angeles for a few months and sign a contract which was the size of a Tolstoy novel. I was doing stunt training, voice coaching and dot dot dot dot dot dot dot. Anyway, they were absolutely firm that they wanted me to be in the film. It was announced on, what is that stupid show in America, LA Tonight or something (The Tonight Show). So, I actually had the role and now I had helicopters landing in my back padding and photographers up trees. But the funniest thing is that United Artists, who are the distributors of the Bond films, had just been purchased by some multi multi-billionaire real estate magnate (Philip Anschutz) who owned the LA Lakers and the ice hockey team in Los Angeles and… I did a screentest with a full soundstage, I think it was 500,000 US for the cost of it, and they loved it, the Broccoli family loved it. I was fighting and making love and all that bullshit. But this fella who bought United Artists said ‘Look, this guy can act, he can fight but I don’t want to go with an unknown.’ This company being the distributor of the Bond films, they (the Broccolis’) had to just say ‘alright’ and that’s when Pierce Brosnan got the role.

Interviewer: And then he lost the role himself, the first time around, to Timothy Dalton.

Light: Yes, exactly. Just the politics involved, I realised afterwards the effect. It was traumatic, not that I was being avaricious in wanting it. When I realised the structure of the business world within the film industry… well, fuck. Everyone has to start somewhere. Sean Connery was a bloody coal miner for God’s sake. Barbara Broccoli, she lay across my bed and said ‘the thing that you’ve got is exactly the same enigmatic charisma as Sean Connery. We’ve never seen that with anyone else we’ve tried to cast in the role.’ She was being candid, and of course it was very flattering but, at the end of the day, it went down to a business decision.

Interviewer: What were your feelings during the whole event? You said that it was traumatic looking back. Were you excited? Did you think I’m going to be a huge movie star?

Light: Strangely enough, being in the public eye most of my life, I’m a shy person. I was absolutely excited because if you are working with a director and you’ve got a reasonable script, you can do anything. If you’ve got a good director, it frees you and you can just become the character that you’re actually pursuing. I thought John Glen was a really terrific guy, and empathetic and good at what he did.

Interviewer: So, you started as a model first. But looking at IMDB, which I know isn’t always that reliable, you had a role in a show called Case for the Defence.

Light: That was rubbish TV. It was supposed to be a TV drama, but it was more of a soap opera. Yeah, I had done theatre. I worked at the Sydney Opera House doing A Streetcar Named Desire with Hugh Keays-Byrne and Jacki Weaver. But the director used to say to me, ‘You’ve got so much talent. Why are you so awkward about it?’ and I went ‘I’m just not good with attention’. That was confirmed utterly when it was announced I had the role of Bond, and suddenly there were TV crews knocking at my door. I was living in the country in a house that I built myself, and I felt ‘Oh my God, if this is what it’s going to be like’. A mate of mine, Jackson Browne the singer, he’s one of the very few people I know who’s had incredible stardom, but he handles it with incredible grace when people are coming up to him and talking to him. I find it stultifying.

Interviewer: Did you feel like it was affecting your family? Were you married at the time?

Light: Yes I was married, and while I was in Los Angeles, I ended up having an affair with a girl who worked in a bar. Then I realised, later down the track, that I was being followed everywhere by photographers and private detectives to see what I was doing. I thought, wow, I was so naïve really. I saw these people ran a franchise that was so big they needed to know if you’ll behave yourself.

Interviewer: I believe similar things happened to George Lazenby.

Light: George Lazenby, God love him, but he was sleeping with every woman in the cast. I thought he was pretty good in the part. The incumbent (Daniel Craig) was the most reflective of Sean Connery there has ever been. On top of that, he’s a very fine actor. I’d seen him in other films before he got the Bond role. He’s the most reflective of Sean Connery, an updated version.

Interviewer: In the eighties, I don’t know if you were aware of this when you were being courted and signed, but a few other Australian and New Zealander actors were also in the mix, like Sam Neill and Mel Gibson. I don’t know if they really wanted an Australian at that time.

Light: I don’t think it was that so much. There was another guy I was in Los Angeles with, Andrew Clarke, an Australian actor, and he basically said, ‘I don’t want it’. The original fee was about $250,000. My agent said, there’s a whole lot of other things you’ll be paid for. You’ll travel all around the world, and if the film is a success, you can demand what you want. I wish I still had the contract. In various house moves it got lost somewhere, but it really was the size of a Tolstoy novel. But anyway look, it is what it is, and there’s no point crying about it. Basically, I’m quite a shy person, and I don’t think I could have dealt with the notoriety and the fame.

Interviewer: Was it that that made you leave the business?

Light: I was still going to Sydney and doing TV commercials and stuff for my agent, but basically, I thought ‘I’ll go now’. Even when I was modelling, I’d be going on a bloody bus and people would recognise me, and I was walking through a department store, going up the escalator and people would come up to me. You either crave it or you don’t, and I’ve never craved fame, but it’s followed me around a lot in my life.

Interviewer: You’re a professional builder now, or you have been for most of your life?

Light: Yeah, I’ve stopped building now, but I still make furniture and that gives me great joy.

Interviewer: Did you ever hear from anyone in the Bond world again?

Light: I mentioned Barbara Broccoli before. I could tell that she wanted me to make love to her, and I didn’t think it would be wise. You’re shitting in your own nest if you do that sort of thing. Look mate, it’s a long time ago and I’m fine with it. It’s so funny, I use to play cricket for a very celebrated hotel in Byron Bay that was owned by John Cornell, the guy who produced the Crocodile Dundee films. He was a friend of mine. I used to play cricket for the team of that hotel, and he got a T-shirt specifically made up for me that made me laugh hysterically, saying 006 and a half on the back of my shirt! I thought that was unique.