Our story of the month: February 2005

© USA Today - May 1985

Roger Moore is "raaaaaaather bored" by all this talk about Bond, James Bond. He'd much rather talk about his Macintosh computer and all those "marvelous gadgets" you can buy to go with it. He'd even prefer to be back home in Gstaad, Switzerland - on the ski slopes or tennis courts. But alas, duty calls 007 to these shores: A View To A Kill, the seventh film feature Moore as James Bond, opens Friday across the USA.

"You know why I keep doing them?" asks the ever-so-suave , ever-so-cool British actor, leaning forward with hushed melodrama.

"Because.... because... the money is fantastic!"

How fantastic?

"Enough to keep me off the street."

Whit that, he leans back, propos a pair of elegant black loafers up on the table, and laughs.

Although he enjoyed making A View To A Kill, Moore says it lacks the usual dose of humour that characterizes Bond films.

"I realized why I was so exhausted after doing this movie - the pace is so frantic and there aren't as many jokes."

And what's like for Moore to slip in and out of the Bond character every two years or so?

"Slip in and out? Bond slips in and out of a few leading ladies, but heavens, I never slip in and out of Bond."

Another roar of laughter. Another sip of Perrier.

Moore - still debonair, forever elegant, and wickedly ironic at 57 - doesn't love being Bond. Moore loves being Moore. "Why? All the fantastic people you meet in this business, for one thing."

Take last night. Dinner at the Buckleys' - William F. and his socialite wife, Pat.

"Absolutely marvelous. My wife and I see them in Gstaad, where they have a home, but it was wonderful being in their place. And Bill has such wonderful Havanas. Cigars, that is. He tried to tempt me, but I had a wretched cold a few months back and gave them up. But they are marvelous, you know?"

So who's Bond and who's Moore?

"Bond doesn't sweat, and he must change shirts 15 times a day", says Moore. "And you know when other people are putting on bathing suits, Bond is putting on a tuxedo. Oh, yes, and the women. Ahhh, the women - they are marvelous, aren't they? But we're always looking for that PG."

And how many more 007s are in Moore's future?

"None. This is the absolute last. Positively. Or at least that's always my answer. Then if they don't ask me back - I'm never embarassed."

But as long as he continues as Bond, 30 minutes of exercise - "27 mornings a month" - is de rigueur for Moore - 6 foot 2 and weighting the same 180 pounds he did in 1972, when he made his debut as Bond in Live And Let Die.

"I suppose Bond has a duty to be fit", he says. "If I hadn't been an actor, I would have eaten and drunk myself to death long ago".

Read our previous stories of the month

August - September - October - November - December 2003

January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December 2004

January 2005