Across seven James Bond films, Roger Moore was notorious for being an absolute gentleman and treating all of his female co-stars with kindness and respect. But in later years, he let slip that two, in particular, drove him “mad” on the set of his final 007 outing, A View To A Kill.
Celebrating its fortieth anniversary, it remains the worst-rated entry in the entire official franchise, with 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. There was criticism about the 57-year-old’s age, with even Sean Connery chiming in: “Bond should be played by an actor 35, 33 years old. I’m too old. Roger’s too old, too!”
Moore, himself, later said “I was only about four hundred years too old for the part.” He also condemned the film for moving too far from the source material, especially by being too gratuitously violent, saying: “I was horrified.”
No surprise, then, that the infamously unflappable actor lost his cool on more than one occasion with two particular co-stars, one of them an international music and fashion icon to this day.
The other had made waves with the male gaze, wearing skimpy outfits in films like The Beastmaster and Sheena-Queen of the Jungle.
When she was cast as Bond Girl Stacey Sutton, Tanya Roberts excitedly told reporters : “Kim Basinger got The Natural (1984) after making a James Bond movie. The same kind of thing could happen to me.”
It did not. She was relegated mainly to erotic thrillers on the big screen, although she had a lead role in the 1990s TV comedy The 70’s Show.
Roberts also earned the Bond franchise its first ever Golden Raspberry (Razzie) nomination in any category. She ‘lost’ the Worst Actress award to Bo Derek in Bolero.
Roberts annoyed Moore less than the divatastic Grace Jones, who played villainous May Day. She has always maintained that she purposefully antagonised her leading man off-screen, to create friction on screen.
It worked. Moore later said: “I’m afraid my diplomatic charm was stretched to the limit with Grace. Every day in her dressing room – which was adjacent to mine – she played very loud music. I was not a fan of heavy metal, so didn’t appreciate it vibrating through the walls … And afternoon nap was out of the question.
I did ask Grace to turn it down several times. To no avail. One day I snapped. I marched into her room, pulled the plug out and then went back to my room, picked up a chair and flung it at the wall. The dent is still there.”
And that was before she brought an eye-popping sex toy along for their love scene…
Moore wryly remembered: “And so to bed. Yes, my love scene with Grace. I slipped between the sheets, followed by her and her rather large black dildo. I’m glad she thought it was funny.”
The last straw came when he grew increasingly irritated that these two leading ladies rushed to their handbags between takes to refresh their make-up, forcing everyone else to wait for them. He secretly took their lipstick and mirrors when they were out of sight, only to watch them return and pull out more.
He said: “They apparently had half a dozen of each – just in case!” And the added the most damning thing you can say about an actor: “They worried more about appearance than performance.”