Moore happy to do some good for a gritty cause<\/p>\n
By Bruce Emond<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Roger Moore is no international man of mystery.
\nHe is, as we all know, the man with the golden gun, the spy who
\nloved me, the cool Brit who was too much of a handful for
\nOctopussy, the man who uttered the immortal words \"Bond, James
\nBond\" in seven blockbusters in the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n
He was OO7 for 13 years, after Sean Connery and George
\nLazenby, and before Connery (again), Timothy Dalton (the second
\nLazenby?) and Pierce Brosnan. While Connery was a rugged Bond, a
\nrough diamond doing his bit for British intelligence, Moore
\nplayed Ian Fleming's creation as a suave sophisticate with a
\ntaste for the ladies, a cheeky way with a double entendre and an
\nironic wink to the audience that all the goings-on were just fun
\nand games.<\/p>\n
Like Brosnan (Remington Steele), he came from a successful
\nrole in a TV whodunit series, playing the perfectly handsome
\nSimon Templar. Before that he had also been under contract at
\nvarious studios during the waning years of the Hollywood studio
\nsystem in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
It's hard to believe he is 73, but then the perennially
\nyouthful Moore was 45 when he made his debut as Bond in Live and
\nLet Die. Although he is not as quick on his feet as he once was
\n(he battled prostate cancer in the early 1990s), he is still a
\ncharmer, with that distinctive, satiny English accent.<\/p>\n
He has a different role today, as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador
\nin the cause for iodized salt, which brought him to Jakarta last
\nweek. His famous name opens even the highest doors (how many
\nmovie actors can land audiences with a country's president, vice
\npresident and House speaker all in the same day) and he still
\nknows his lines, talking effortlessly about the particular
\nproblems of iodization of salt in Indonesia and the health risk
\nfrom a lack of iodine in the diet, especially for the young.<\/p>\n
Here is an excerpt of an interview where he talked about his
\nwork with UNICEF, his acting career and whether the genteel Mr.
\nBond still has a place in today's world.<\/p>\n
How has your trip been so far?<\/p>\n
We had three very positive meetings with the President, the
\nVice President and with the speaker of the House. They all
\nexpressed knowledge on the subject; the Vice President was
\nparticularly interested in the demonstration (of the difference
\nbetween iodized and noniodized salt). And then we had press
\nconferences -- they're very big on press conferences here!<\/p>\n
When did you first become involved with UNICEF, in the 1960s?<\/p>\n
Well, I did the occasional greetings card promo, but I was not
\ninvolved with UNICEF as such until 1990 when Audrey Hepburn asked
\nme if I would cohost the Danny Kaye Children's Awards, in
\nAmsterdam at the time ... Audrey asked me to come a day earlier
\nthan the actual telecast to take part in the press conference,
\nbut I thought I didn't know enough about UNICEF to handle the
\npress conference.<\/p>\n
Of course, at the press conference they only wanted to talk
\nabout movies, but Audrey wouldn't let them, she wanted to talk
\nabout UNICEF, about children's issues. It was her passion, and
\nsubsequently of other people, my peers, Harry Belafonte and Peter
\nUstinov. I sort of had to find out what all those statistics
\nactually meant ... there is an interesting quote from Stalin: \"A
\nmillion deaths is a statistic, one death is a tragedy if it is
\nsomeone you know\".<\/p>\n
Putting a face on the tragedy ...<\/p>\n
So, from all the statistics I had there were no faces and no
\nnames. The only way I could find out them was to actually sign on
\nwith UNICEF, to go out into the field ... they tried me out, to
\nsee how I would take it, how I would get along with the whole
\nthing. And I must say from the first moment I was hooked.<\/p>\n
So what has it meant to you ... ?<\/p>\n
It means you really want to make your involvement active, not
\njust passive, and just sit back and say, \"Oh, it's deplorable\" --
\nyou really have to do something about it.<\/p>\n
And I remember being in Central America, and going to Honduras
\nand El Salvador and Guatemala and Costa Rica, and becoming very
\naware of the smells associated with the poverty, the appalling
\nsight of the favelas, the lack of sanitation, the lack of access
\nto safe drinking water, the malnutrition ... All of those
\nlingered ...<\/p>\n
And then getting back to America, and at a press conference at
\nDallas airport on my way through ... somebody said (affects a
\nbroad accent of the American South) \"Well, what would you say if
\nsomeone was to say to you, 'well, we have poor in this country'\".
\nI would say kiss my arse, because the poor in your country are
\nmultimillionaires compared to the poor man in a developing
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
Well, they didn't like me saying kiss my arse!<\/p>\n
You talked about Audrey Hepburn -- she was very influential in
\nyou joining UNICEF?<\/p>\n
Yes, she was the key influence in my becoming a part of it,
\nbecause it was her passion that made me curious to find out why
\nshe was so passionate about it. And she was so eloquent in
\nexpressing her emotions about it, and her feelings on what should
\nbe done.<\/p>\n
And she made a remarkable impression on the world, when you
\nthink she was only a goodwill ambassador for three years.<\/p>\n
And that enduring image of the photo of her hugging a refugee
\nin Africa.<\/p>\n
Yes. I remember reading a newspaper and seeing a photograph of
\nSophia Loren representing the UNHCR, and the newspaper article
\naccused her, and film stars in general, of using the poor, the
\ndestitute, and the maimed, for photo opportunities.<\/p>\n
And I was highly incensed by that, because to me it was an
\ninsult to Audrey's memory. Because I believe that Audrey could
\nhave lived for many more years -- that she would have still been
\nhere today -- if she had taken care of the cancer that was eating
\naway at her but probably didn't know it. And instead of having
\ntreatment, she was in the Sudan, in Somalia ...<\/p>\n
If we could talk a little about your movie career, did you
\nfeel that because you were so good at playing the suave,
\nsophisticated man that it actually went against you in getting
\nthe meatier roles? The only role I think that was a bit different
\nfrom the James Bond-Simon Templar character was in Ffolkes? (He
\nplayed an underwater expert battling itnernational terrorists.<\/p>\n
Oh, Ffolkes, that was fun to do. Those are what I call the
\nacting parts -- the others are the nonacting parts, the straight
\nparts, where you are playing an extension of your own personality
\nthat fits the part.<\/p>\n
Not that I'm a hero -- I'm not, I'm an abject coward, I hate
\nguns, I hate explosions. I think my talent was not looking
\nafraid.<\/p>\n
I think your talent was also that you shared with the audience
\nthat all this is just a game.<\/p>\n
Because I think that type of hero is just a joke. I don't
\nbelieve in him, and hope that the audience will laugh along with
\nme, and not at me. But when you get a chance to put on a beard,
\nor a false nose, that's what I call acting because you have
\nsomething to hide behind ...<\/p>\n
But your looks were a hindrance to you getting the parts ...
\nthat were a bit different?<\/p>\n
Well, the parts that I would like to have got, I didn't get
\nbecause I looked too clean-cut. Which is fine -- they have, I
\nsuppose, been financially the most rewarding, if not emotionally.
\nAnd your bank manager is happy, your agent is happy and you make
\na living.<\/p>\n
And I'm very grateful I had this success, because it has been
\nsome use to me being a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Because
\nyou are interested in talking to me, like you said about UNICEF,
\nwhich your paper is very pro, but also talking about movies. So
\nif I had not done those things you wouldn't be interested in me,
\nif I was an assistant bank manager ...<\/p>\n
What was your favorite role?<\/p>\n
Probably, one of the few times when, oddly, I had a mustache,
\nin The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), in which I played a
\ndoppelganger of a man who saw himself and suddenly discovered
\nthat it wasn't really him, that he had died on the operating
\ntable, gone away and come back to find that he had not really
\nbeen missed because someone had taken his place. It was an
\ninteresting idea. And from the Bond movies, The Spy Who Loved Me.<\/p>\n
And who was your favorite Bond woman?<\/p>\n
Then you are playing favorites. But one actress, the Swedish
\nactress Maud Adams, who did two Bonds, The Man with the Golden
\nGun and she played Octopussy. I enjoyed Maud very much.<\/p>\n
Your image is the quintessential Englishman, the James Bond.
\nIn this day and age is there still a place for Bond?<\/p>\n
Well, apparently from the figures at the box office, all the
\nlatest Bonds have made a lot of money. People are still very
\ncurious about Bonds. The old Bonds are still in replay all the
\ntime, And the videos and DVDs sell -- thank goodness because
\notherwise I wouldn't be able to be a goodwill ambassador on US$1
\na year tax free!<\/p>\n
Do you have any career regrets?<\/p>\n
I don't regret not playing Lear!<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/moore-happy-to-do-some-good-for-a-gritty-cause-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }