Henry Cavill lifts lid on Bond twist in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
The star’s name has long been linked with speculation about the next 007 casting – and his new blockbuster won’t do anything to disentangle it.
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Despite never actually having played the spy, Henry Cavill’s name has long been associated with James Bond, and it’s happening again as speculation swirls about who is set to take over the iconic role next.
The Superman star was first revealed as a frontrunner to play Bond in the early noughties, before Daniel Craig landed the role, and has again been reportedly thrown in the mix now that his fellow British actor has quit the franchise.
There’s no word yet on who has actually landed the highly-coveted role (although Aaron Taylor-Johnson appeared to be on the cusp earlier this year) – and Cavill’s latest project has done nothing to disentangle his name from 007’s.
In The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a heavily fictionalised telling of real-life WWII military mission, the actor stars as Major Gus March-Phillips – the man believed to have been the main inspiration for author Ian Fleming’s original James Bond character.
“I don’t know if it was just my character, or if it was a combination of all these characters – I imagine the latter is probably more true,” Cavill told news.com.au ahead of The Ministry’s release.
“Something I recently learned was that [March-Phillips] was an amateur poet, and was also an amateur author, and wrote a spy novel. He died during World War II, but had he had survived, maybe he would’ve beaten Ian Fleming to the punch with a James Bond-type book.”
Cavill’s action-comedy film, directed by Guy Ritchie, is based upon recently declassified files of the British War Department and focuses on the first-ever special forces organisation, which was established by former UK Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, during the Second World War.
The top-secret unit, made up of a motley crew, embarks upon a daring and dangerous mission against the Nazis, deploying unconventional and “ungentlemanly” tactics.
As with any large-scale, action-packed blockbuster, there was “a lot of choreography and a lot of planning” and therefore not much margin for error, Cavill’s co-star, Alex Pettyfer, explained to news.com.au.
However, there was one moment where things did get a little heated – literally.
“We did this one scene – it’s in the [film] trailer – where we’re all walking, and there’s a huge explosion behind us – and there was definitely a nice heat on the back of the neck,” the British actor admitted, with Cavill chiming in: “Yeah, that explosion may have been slightly larger than intended … and we felt that.”
But as far as “unintended” moments on set go, it was that of actress’ Eiza Gonzalez – who plays Marjorie Stewart – that was significantly more panic-inducing.
In one memorable moment from the film, her character, an actress-turned-secret operative, performs a flawless rendition of Mack the Knife – in German.
For Gonzalez, who released an EP and two studio albums before her acting career took off, the singing part was never going to be an issue.
Delivering it in a language she doesn’t speak, with just minutes to prepare? That was more of a challenge.
Initially, Gonzalez was given two days to learn and record the song in English, which she managed, but then made the “mistake” of pointing out the song’s origins to Ritchie.
“I was like, ‘Did you know this song is originally in German?’” she recalled, explaining that he’d listened to that version and “loved” it.
“He’s like, ‘go sing it in German!’” Gonzalez added.
“I was like, ‘What do you mean? We start filming in five minutes!’”
The director was determined, however, and pushed for the German rendition, despite her protests.
According to the actress, what followed was a frantic session with her on set accent coach, where she rushed to “phonetically memorise” the song.
“I just memorised it in five minutes before filming … that’s how that came about. So I sing it in English and German,” Gonzalez revealed.
“It all happened in less than 24 hours.”
Along with Cavill, Gonzalez and Pettyfer, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare also stars Alan Ritchson, Cary Elwes, Henry Golding, Babs Olusanmokun, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare will be available to stream on Prime Video from July 25.
Originally published as Henry Cavill lifts lid on Bond twist in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
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