The Bizarre Audition That Got George Lazenby Into James Bond

When Sean Connery stepped away from the 007 franchise after five films, the producers faced a daunting task: find someone who could fill the shoes of the world’s most iconic secret agent. Their choice was a virtually unknown Australian named George Lazenby, a man whose résumé consisted of a brief stint as a model and a handful of odd jobs, but zero acting credits.

Lazenby’s road to Bond was anything but straightforward. In the 2017 Hulu documentary Becoming Bond, he revealed that he endured a relentless four‑month audition process. He was made to ride a horse bare‑back through a muddy arena, swim a dozen laps while producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli watched from the poolside, and even speak with a match in his mouth to force his thick Australian twang into something that sounded vaguely British.

All of that, however, turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg.

One night, a mysterious man appeared at Lazenby’s hotel with a young woman. The stranger told Lazenby that the woman wanted to have sex with him, and, without any hesitation, the three of them headed to a private room. While Lazenby and the woman got intimate, the mysterious man sat in a chair nearby, calmly reading a newspaper. Lazenby later thought the whole scene was a bizarre prank, assuming the stranger was “going second” and branding him a “bloody pervert” when that never happened.

It wasn’t until the pair were leaving that the truth emerged. The man explained that the studio executives were nervous about Lazenby’s image – they feared he might be perceived as gay and, more importantly, wanted to test his comfort level with women under unconventional circumstances. The woman, as it turned out, was a prostitute hired specifically for the audition.

“I had no idea it was a test,” Lazenby later joked. “I just thought I’d got lucky.” The incident, as odd as it sounds, was one of the most memorable parts of his grueling evaluation, a story that still raises eyebrows decades later.

In the end, Lazenby’s perseverance paid off. He was cast as James Bond in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, delivering a performance that remains both praised and debated among Bond enthusiasts. Though his tenure as 007 lasted only one film, the surreal audition saga has become a legendary footnote in the franchise’s history.