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Roger Moores take on the new Bond
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Movie audiences nowadays expect scenes of graphic violence in James Bond movies, unlike when Roger Moore played the super spy with a tongue-in-cheek humor, the actor believes.
"I am happy to have done it, but I'm sad that it has turned so violent," Moore said before "Quantum of Solace," starring Daniel Craig as a darker Agent 007, opens in North America on Friday.
"That's keeping up with the times, it's what cinema-goers seem to want and it's proved by the box-office figures," Moore told Reuters in an interview about his memoir, "My Word is My Bond."
The new Bond film opened in London on Oct 31, breaking the British weekend box-office record with a gross of $25 million. It has taken in more than $106 million worldwide so far.
Moore, 81, recalled being appalled at the violence in "A View to a Kill," the 1985 movie which was the last of the seven in which he played Bond. "That wasn't Bond," he said.
In his book, Moore writes of his distaste for guns, ever since he was shot in the leg by a friend with a BB gun as a teenager.
While making "The Man With the Golden Gun," director Guy Hamilton wanted Bond to be tougher and had him threaten to break Maud Adams' character's arm to get information, he writes. "That sort of characterization didn't sit well with me, but Guy was keen to make my Bond a little more ruthless.
"I suggested my Bond would have charmed the information out of her by bedding her first. My Bond was a lover and a giggler, but I went along with Guy," the British actor wrote.
Moore has not yet seen "Quantum of Solace," but based on Craig's first Bond film, "Casino Royale," believes it will be a success in North America too.
"Daniel has done one Bond and he was in 'Munich' and ... he's done a lot of stuff, but his face, after one Bond film, that's all he needs. He is Bond."
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