Next James Bond lost Outlander star over personality trait

Heughan bared all in his new autobiography, Waypoints: My Scottish Journey, which hit store shelves earlier this week.

In an excerpt released in Entertainment Weekly, Heughan explained that the 007 audition in 2005 came at a stage “in my life where I probably wasn’t ready for it, but I wonder what would have happened if I had got it”.

Before Craig was confirmed to play Bond in 2006’s Bond reboot, Casino Royale, the competition was fierce. Not only did the British actor go up against Heughan, but he also took on Superman star Henry Cavill before coming out victorious.

Ultimately, however, Heughan revealed he missed out on James Bond because he didn’t have a specific character trait.

Heughan was 25, part of a group of hopefuls in their twenties including Henry Cavill, when he auditioned. He said: “I think they were looking into a younger James Bond, which is what I suspect will happen next. It was such a strange experience, but I enjoyed it. I went in with a script and they were like: ‘We might get you to read something from this scene,’ but they don’t tell you what it’s from.”

He added: “After that, I was taken upstairs and I met Barbara Broccoli and Martin Campbell, the director at the time. There was a golden gun on the table — I guess from The Man With The Golden Gun? — and we sat around a very large wooden table and talked a bit about Bond. It was strange, as they didn’t want to talk about Bond, but they talked about Bond. It’s all very secret service.”

Heughan revealed in his memoir: “I knew there would be stiff competition, of course, and ultimately Daniel Craig made Bond his own. When I learned the role had gone elsewhere, however, the feedback I received boiled down to the fact that I wasn’t edgy enough by nature.”

At the time, Heughan was a relatively unknown Scottish actor who had only starred in a handful of film and TV credits under his belt. Since then, of course, he has become the main star of Outlander, the brutish and seductive Jamie Fraser.

Despite this unexpected response from the James Bond bosses, Heughan admitted he was not hurt by the exchange.

“Following that experience,” he confessed. “I learned to appear naturally on that level when required. Even though I was essentially acting outside of the actual audition, it became just one more thing I was prepared to do in order to land a part. I considered it to be a challenge in some ways; a performance I could pretend was really me that I could switch on and off at will. It wasn’t a question of becoming a bad boy.”

READ MORE: Next Bond: Dwayne Johnson backs DC star but it’s not Henry Cavill

Just last week, Ladbrokes awarded frontrunner Regé-Jean Page a staggering 3/1 on becoming the next 007.

He was joined by the likes of Henry Cavill, with 7/2, and Tom Hardy, with 8/1.

Heughan was not present in the top nine candidates for the role – does this mean his chances of becoming the secret agent have dwindled completely?

The James Bond series is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.

SOURCE / SOURCE