Callum Turner is doing himself no favours if he ever wants to slip into James Bond’s legendary tuxedo.
The Masters of the Air star is in the running to play the legendary spy in Amazon’s upcoming 007 reboot.
However, Turner’s most recent interview proves he’s not really got a license to thrill, so much as a signed and notarised permit to be excitable (but not excited) between the hours of 3pm and 4pm on Thursdays.
In fact, his duller-than-particularly-dull dishwater chat with Esquire might be one of the most boring things I’ve experienced in some time, and that’s coming from someone who likes history podcasts.
Now I’ll start with a caveat so large people who see it will say ‘wow, that’s a big caveat’: the piece, which is written by Henry Wong, is great.
It does what a good feature should in that it both informs (Who knew that Turner spent time in Japan? Not me!) and it’s entertaining – I’d kill to have a piece like that in my portfolio, but I’m too busy writing about my disdain towards pistachio.
No, it’s Turner who I’m afraid I’m a bit perplexed by, as he gives an answer so tedious it makes people who talk about their dreams seem interesting.
Specifically, when he’s asked about the near-endless rumours that he’ll play Bond, he tries to dodge the question with all the grace of a clumsy bear having a crack at ballet.
‘I’m not going to comment on that either,’ he says. ‘I don’t know anything, so I can’t comment. There’s nothing for me to comment on.’
When pressed by Wong, however, he continues: ‘There’s nothing for me to comment on, and I think it’s best just to not say anything.’
And when Wong tries a third time (we love a tenacious line of questioning), he parrots: ‘I just know I’m not going to comment on it… just because there’s no point in commenting on it at this moment.’
Is that really how Turner chooses to answer a question you should have seen coming from a million miles away?
What happened to the craft of being able to answer a bloody question? Has it gone the way of cursive, reading analogue clocks, and making polite small talk, and they just don’t teach people those skills anymore?
Honestly, this really is the type of response journalists dread because what are you supposed to do with that?
It’s the verbal equivalent of that tiny pocket jeans weirdly have. It might technically have a function, but it’s useless to me.
