Bill Skarsgard has confirmed he will not be the next James Bond, revealing that he was never even approached about the role in Denis Villeneuve's upcoming reboot of the franchise.
Speaking on Josh Horowitz's podcast Happy Sad Confused, the Swedish actor joked about the omission. 'They didn't call me about James Bond. I don't know what that was about,' he said. 'Every single British, Australian [actor] .. but maybe they were like, We can't do a Swede for this guy. I wasn't even thrown into the mix.'
Speculation over who will inherit the 007 mantle has intensified in recent weeks. Names floated for the part include Callum Turner, Josh O'Connor and Jack Lowden, while Robert Pattinson and Nicholas Hoult were most recently reported to have screen-tested for the role.
Skarsgard agreed with Horowitz that he would not want to commit to playing Bond for a decade or more, but he left the door open to appearing in the franchise in another capacity. 'That's right,' he said. 'Just want to go in and do one Mads Mikkelsen villain.'
Asked how he chooses his projects, the actor admitted he does not have a clear method. 'It's not something that I'm actively looking for, but if I feel compelled to do something, yeah,' he said. 'A lot of people ask me, what goes into picking your roles or whatever and I don't really know how to say it other than I feel drawn or compelled to. It's something that you can't really put your words on it and describe why it's happening.'
He added that he wants to protect that instinct, saying, 'But I've also noticed that I don't want to become jaded. Which means that I think I could probably go long stretches without working and waiting for something to be compelling enough for me to work on.'
Villainous parts are familiar territory for Skarsgard. His credits include Pennywise in the It films, Count Orlok in Robert Eggers' Nosferatu, Eric Draven in The Crow and Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont in John Wick: Chapter 4.
Even so, he told Horowitz he has become more selective about dark roles. 'For a villain, it would have to be something that felt original to me, that was something that I hadn't done before,' Skarsgard said. 'I feel, kind of, spent with those things. But there are villains [that] could be really fun in different ways and if it's the right kind.'
