Licence to Kill, the 16th James Bond film starring Timothy Dalton as 007, was released in the United States twenty years ago today. To celebrate the occasion, FelixLeiter.com recently caught up with David Hedison to discuss his second outing as Felix Leiter as well as his book, The Fly at Fifty.
From 1989 until last year when Quantum of Solace was released, Mr. Hedison had the distinct honor of being the only man to play Felix Leiter in two seperate films (Live and Let Die & Licence to Kill). Today, he and Jeffrey Wright share that honor, however, Hedison is still many Bond fans’ favorite Felix Leiter.
If you don’t already own Licence to Kill on home video, I suggest buying the Ultimate Edition DVD or Blu-ray because (1) it’s one of the best James Bond films and (2) it features James Bond’s brother from Langley (although the film shows Leiter liaising with the Drug Enforcement Administration)!
Welcome to…
The David Hedison FLc Interview
Hunter Graybeal: In your extended biography located in chapter two of The Fly at Fifty, it says that you were in the theatre company for the 1951 season at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. Being from nearby Bristol, Tennessee, I’d love to know what it was like for you to live there that summer, being a vastly different region than your native New England.
David Hedison: Barter wasn’t my first time living in the South. I spent a year in Jacksonville, Florida in 1945-46 as a seaman second class in the US Navy. I like the South. It may be different than New England, but people are people no matter where you go. I have always enjoyed Southern hospitality whenever and wherever it is offered.
HG: Also in your biography, it says that you appeared in A Month in the Country alongside your own teacher, Ms. Uta Hagen, and under the direction of Sir Michael Redgrave. As a young professional actor, what was it like to be on the stage with such heroes and heroines of the acting world?
DH: I learned a lot. It was great experience. I really could relate to the tutor, Belieav, and that came out in my performance. Hagen believed in my talent, which helped immensely. I gave that part everything I had.
Redgrave was an excellent director. It showed in the reviews we got and in the awards I won. I knew I needed to do well in this part. It was my first real break after almost a year of trying to make it on the stage in New York, so I went for it. And I ended up in Hollywood making movies, but that’s another story!
HG: If another The Fly remake were to be greenlit and produced again, would you be interested in playing a part in it?
DH: Not sure what I’d play now, but if the part was right for me, and they asked me to do it, I’d certainly say yes.
Chris Wright: July 14, 2009 will mark the 20th anniversary of Licence to Kill. Can you tell us what your fondest memory is from filming your second Bond film?
DH: I loved the Key West location. In particular, winding down beside the hotel pool in the evening after a hard day’s work, with my wife, Bridget, and Benicio del Toro, who is a lovely, warm person, nothing like Dario. Del Toro was not well known then, but I could see he had talent. There was a boat there and my wife and I would go out sailing.
CW: What did you think when you read the script and it said your character was going to get married and maimed in the film?
DH: I was coming down to the set from another job – a play called Return Engagements – and my advance script got lost in the mail. So I arrived for my first day of shooting with no script. Barbara Broccoli was kind enough to lend me hers to get me through the day, until they could get me one, so I really didn’t know what I was doing, at first.
CW: Do you wish you had been asked to do more Bond films as Felix Leiter?
DH: I certainly would have played the part if someone had asked me to, but no one did. They took Roger’s Bond in a direction that did not include Felix until his last film and then they decided “Felix” should be an Asian. I never complained about them casting me in the two films they did. Felix in the Fleming books is supposed to be blond and from Texas, and I am neither.
CW: Can you tell us about any of your current or future projects?
DH: I plan to make some personal appearances later this year, but the dates are not announced yet. They will show up on my website, DavidHedison.com, when they are set. I’m still working at the Actors Studio West and I enjoy that very much.
HG & CW: FelixLeiter.com would like to thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview.
DH: My pleasure.
THE FLc INTERVIEW WILL RETURN…
