Play James Bond? I can barely get myself out of the house

FILM Johnny Flynn can flip from playing a mobster to Ian Fleming, but it’s his music that he loves

- Liz Aubrey

FOR the record, Johnny Flynn is not being lined up as the next James Bond. In preparation for his latest role as the author Ian Fleming in new spy thriller Operation Mincemeat, the actor tells me that he spent a lot of time watching old Bond movies. Now that Daniel Craig has hung up his tuxedo, could he see himself stepping into 007’s shoes one day?

“I can barely get myself out of the house to go for a run once a month,” he laughs. He’s not sure he would be up for the “very intense” physical demands of the role. “Never say never”, he laughs some more, but whoever the next Bond is “at this point in history... it’s perhaps problematic to have another white man playing the part. There has to be a chance to look at how we create more diverse casting in some of these iconic franchises”.

Operation Mincemeat sees South African-born, London-raised Flynn star opposite Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen in a story about a daring real-life Second World War spy mission. Masterminded in part by Fleming, it involved planting fake battle plans on a (relatively) fresh corpse to deceive the Germans of Churchill’s real invasion target. Fleming worked in the Intelligence Division of the Navy, helping to plan this and several other secret operations, many of which later inspired his 007 stories.