Bridget Jones's Leo Woodall says James Bond call "hasn't come yet"
"I want to beat up some bad guys, you know?"
Leo Woodall is having quite the moment. Fresh off his roles in The White Lotus and One Day, the actor is now starring opposite Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and is leading action thriller series Prime Target on Apple TV+.
Naturally, given that his latest two roles see him as both a heartthrob and an (admittedly unintentional) action hero, some have wondered whether he could be the man to put on the tuxedo and play James Bond, given that the latest iteration of that character has yet to be cast.
Woodall was recently asked by Variety whether he would be interested in taking on the Bond role, to which he laughed and said: "Every British actor’s getting that!"
"That call hasn’t come yet," he added, before admitting: "Yeah, I’d do Bond."
"I’d love to do something like that. It doesn’t need to be saving the world, but I want to beat up some bad guys, you know?"
In Mad About the Boy, Woodall plays Bridget's young new love interest Roxster, who at one point finds himself soaked after launching himself into a pool to save a desperate dog, in a clear callback to Hugh Grant's Daniel Cleaver in the first film.
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The actor told RadioTimes.com of filming this moment: "Yes, it was fun doing it. It was even more fun watching it, I think, with all of the music and, you know... I guess some of the reactions were funny! But, yeah, it's definitely a scene that I'll put on my show reel!"
Of course, Woodall isn't wrong when he says a lot of British actors are currently being asked about playing Bond. In recent months, Josh O'Connor, Cosmo Jarvis and Luke Evans have all joined the list of rumoured candidates, which has also in the past included Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Regé-Jean Page.
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Meanwhile, another actor has put themselves forward, not for the lead role, but to play a future nemesis of Bond - Ke Huy Quan.
The Loki star said while speaking with Empire magazine: "I would love to play a bad guy. Like a Bond villain. Or the kind of thing Hugh Grant does in Heretic. I want to go out of my comfort zone and just play this diabolical, really bad guy. That would be a lot of fun."
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is in UK cinemas now.
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Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
