John Cleese: The former Q star on why James Bond has lost its Britishness

The veteran actor said that Bond movies have sacrificed their British flavour to secure big money from Asia.

17:52 24 June 2014

Veteran actor John Cleese, who starred in two 007 movies – The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day – has gone on record to claim that recent James Bond movies have lost their national identity. 

 

Hinting that he was dropped from his role as gadget inventor Q, he said: ‘I did two James Bond movies and then I believe that they decided that the tone they needed was that of the Bourne action movies, which are very gritty and humourless,’ he told Radio Times, of the thriller spy films starring Matt Damon which have been a box office and critical hit.

 

‘Also the big money was coming from Asia, from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, where the audiences go to watch the action sequences, and that's why in my opinion the action sequences go on for too long, and it's a fundamental flaw.’

 

He added: ‘The audiences in Asia are not going for the subtle British humour or the class jokes.’

 

Cleese, whose incarnation of gadget master Q was replaced by a more sedate version portrayed by Ben Whishaw in Skyfall in 2012, said that he was forced to do some things in the last couple of years simply because he was making divorce payments. 

 

‘The past few years have been rather disappointing because I've had to earn money for the alimony. Otherwise I could have been doing things that were more satisfying to me artistically.’