Clive Owen was one of few actors to turn down the role of James Bond, but the star’s 2007 action comedy Shoot ‘Em Up featured a sly secret reference to the role he almost played. Since the late, great Sean Connery’s influential James Bond debut in 1962’s Dr. No, Ian Fleming’s suave super-spy has been played by seven actors in official 007 movie adaptations. With Layer Cake star Daniel Craig’s tenure in the role ending after the upcoming No Time To Die, the number will soon turn to eight.
The interpretations of James Bond onscreen range from Roger Moore’s campy, theatrical take on the character to Craig’s stern, stoic post-Bourne Bond. However, there is one thing that each James Bond has in common. Whenever an actor retires from the role, there is a frenzied and very public debate over who should take over the role next.
In the early 2000s, before the producers decided to take another route and Daniel Craig was cast, King Arthur star Clive Owen was heavily tipped to take over the part of James Bond. Owen became one of few actors to turn down the role of James Bond when the producers refused to give him a financial stake in the series, and soon after Craig’s casting, Owen started spoofing the role he chose against taking on. The R-rated 2007 action comedy Shoot 'Em Up contains a sly, easy-to-miss reference about Owen deciding not to take on the part in its mile-a-minute opening scene. Owen’s sharp-shooting antihero is seen firing Bond's signature Walter PPK, only for the legendary gun to then jam and a frustrated Owen to declare it "a piece of crap.”
Owen’s character, the simply-named drifter Smith, then tosses the gun aside and opts to use another. This throwaway gag is the only Bond reference featured in Shoot ‘Em Up, although the tongue-in-cheek action-comedy also riffs on Hard Boiled, Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, and even the Looney Tunes throughout its anarchic runtime. However, like actual Bond actor Roger Moore, Owen spoofed 007 a few other times outside of the underrated 2007 action outing. The actor also parodied the character during a goofy cameo in 2006's The Pink Panther remake.
This time around, Owen played Agent Nigel Boswell, or “006,” who Steve Martin’s titular Inspector Clouseau was quick to remind him was “one short of the big time” (much to the chagrin of Owen’s deadpan secret agent). Boswell warns Clouseau that he is in the legendary inspector’s jurisdiction due to top-secret business and therefore discretion is key, a disclosure that goes about as well as fans of the Pink Panther series would imagine. Like Shoot ‘Em Up, the cameo offers Owen a chance to flex his comic abilities and proves that the actor’s take on Bond would likely have been nothing like Casino Royale’s tortured, dead-serious antihero. With Craig’s iteration of the character being beloved by critics, it is impressive that would-be James Bond Owens maintained a sense of humor about his decision to turn down the role.
