It’s an awful lot of fuss to go to for a former milkman who was born only a couple of hundred yards from where he’s now sitting. But such is Sir Sean Connery’s love for the Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh that he named his production company after it. On Friday afternoon he was back on home turf at the Cineworld cinema in Fountainbridge to receive a special award from BAFTA Scotland for outstanding achievement in film. This was one of the flagship events at the 60th Edinburgh International Film Festival and all the more fitting because Friday 25 August 2006 was the actor’s 76th birthday.
The event began with a rare screening of The Bowler And The Bunnet, a documentary about the Clydeside shipyards that Connery directed for Scottish Television back in 1967. Sir Sean then took to the stage with EIFF Artistic Director Shane Danielsen for an interview session that appropriately spanned his entire career. Now claiming to be happy in retirement, he hadn’t lost any of his feisty nature, especially when it came to discussing the latter day disappointments that made him turn his back on Hollywood. According to Connery, the producer of The Avengers was “a bit of a wanker” who claimed the audience test scores for the film were going great. Worse, though, was his dismissal of Stephen Norrington, director of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. “I liked the idea of it,” the star said of the movie. “I didn’t find out until the first day of shooting that this guy was insane and certifiable… I never had a problem [with movies] until that last arsehole.”
When asked about more pleasant memories from earlier years, Connery was in a brighter mood. The Edinburgh audience was treated to fond anecdotes about working with Alfred Hitchcock on Marnie and Audrey Hepburn on Robin And Marian. Best of all were some revelations about opportunities missed. Connery turned down the role of Morpheus in The Matrix (“I read it and I didn’t understand it”) and mentioned an earlier attempt to shoot The Man Who Would Be King with Richard Burton instead of Michael Caine. Pressed to name the director he most wished he had worked with, he surprisingly went for Swedish art-house colossus Ingmar Bergman. His favourite co-stars? Michael Caine, Nicholas Cage and Robert Shaw. His favourite roles? The Man Who Would Be King, The Russia House, The Hunt For Red October and live television play from 1957, Requiem For A Heavyweight. His favourite Bond film? From Russia With Love. Will Daniel Craig make a good James Bond? Thumbs up. The reason he has been quiet about Indiana Jones IV? He hasn’t been sent a script, so assumes his character isn’t in it.
The biggest laugh of the afternoon came with a mention of Fettes College, an upmarket school in Edinburgh where the fictional James Bond was educated. “Tony Blair and I both went to Fettes,” announced Connery. “I delivered the milk.” From humble beginnings to Patron of the EIFF, we know now which cat got the cream.
Alan Morrison