James Bond: Mark Strong blames a hangover for ruining his villain audition

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

As far as embarrassing drinking stories go, Mark Strong has got himself a doozy. According to the actor, he once had a shot at playing a Bond villain during the 1990s, when Pierce Brosnan was 007. That sounds amazing, doesn't it? Only Strong says a wicked hangover ruined his audition. What? Who gets tanked the night before such an important meeting? Well, it might have had something to do with future Bond star, Daniel Craig, being his drinking buddy that night.

Strong recently shared his story during an interview on Sky One's There's Something About Movies, saying, “I learned the lines…and to celebrate I went out for a drink, and I got pissed. I overdid it, and the next day I was severely hungover.”

The morning after his evening with Craig, Strong could feel the drinking demons dancing atop his skull. He collected himself and headed into the audition, where eight casting executives were waiting. To no one's surprise, he bombed. “I started, then I just forgot my lines, couldn’t remember what they were and they all just kind of fell apart. I was sweating, it was a terrible experience — but I really learned from it…The irony was, the guy I was out the night before getting pissed with was Daniel Craig. So I blame him!”

Woof. That's a tough break, though it sounds like Strong learned a valuable lesson that day. Perhaps adding insult to injury, Craig would go on to play the franchise's lead character several years later. Craig now has four Bond films under his lapel, while Strong has none.

That's not to say that Strong hasn't done well for himself since. Far from it. In addition to playing Merlin in Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman franchise, Strong currently appears opposite Emma Stone and Emma Thompson in Disney’s Cruella. Oh, and let's not forget that he got his chance to play the villain Dr. Sivana in DC's Shazam! That's a mighty fine list of credits if you ask me, and we're merely scratching the surface. One has to imagine that Strong has plenty of roles left in his career. Who knows? Maybe he'll give the Bond franchise another go after Craig retires.

Do you have any embarrassing drinking stories that resulted in you losing out on a major opportunity? If you're cool with it, tell us what happened in the comments section below.