When Paul Giamatti joined season 2 the HBO series “30 Coins” he had a very solid reason for wanting to play antagonist Christian Barbrow. As the actor told Bloody Disgusting:
“I was like, ‘Oh, it’s like a Bond film. Sure, I’ll do this, absolutely.’ Yeah, no question about it. He’s a Bond villain. This is my shot at playing a Bond villain. I’m never going to play a Bond villain other than this.”
Clearly, then, Giamatti is harboring a desire to play a James Bond villain — though considering we’ve had no official word on who’ll be playing the next Bond beside the confirmation that it won’t be Taron Egerton, at this point Giamitti might as well throw his hat in the ring for 007 himself. For now, the “Holdovers” star has at least given us an insight into what he’d do in the role of a Bond villain. Speaking to GQ, the actor said:
“I’d want an accent of some kind. I’d definitely want an accent. It’d be nice to have an animal with me of some kind. Not necessarily a cat, but something. Any animal, maybe. Not a parrot or something. Something real. I don’t know. An accent, though, of some kind I’d have to have. A guy who’s all in fur coats and stuff like that? Be great.”
So Blofeld, then — he wants to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Well, maybe not quite, but he’s definitely taking some cues from the most iconic Bond villain. Though, it should be said, Giamatti’s comments are clearly tongue-in-cheek, perhaps because he thinks there’s absolutely no chance of him actually playing a Bond antagonist.