Bonded: Alan Cumming as Borls and lzabella Scorupco as Natalya
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As one half of fey comedy duo Victor and Barry and a camp
flight attendant in The High Life, Alan Cumming is perhaps the most unlikely villain in Bond history. After slipping into a Russian accent in Goldeneye, he attempts to convince Alan Morrison he’s
no Mr Nice Guy.
nce upon a time. it wasjust a game in the school playground. but given the chance to be part of a real, live James Bond adventure, what‘s the first thing that you’d need? The Aston Martin? The exploding watch? The girls?
‘I really wanted to have a pet to stroke. but they wouldn‘t let me.’ complains Alan Cumming. the latest actor to join that gallery of demented megalomaniacs who reckon they can take over the world with a fiendish plan and a mad cackle. ‘l really liked Donald Pleasence stroking his cat. and i liked that
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woman with spikes at the end of her feet — Lotte Lenya — I liked her. Who else? Jaws. l suppose. and what-do-you-call-him? The one. the big one. the baddie who used to throw his bowler hat? Oddjob. Yeah. him. Those are the ones I remember.’
in. G(>l(/(’Iit’_\‘(’. the seventeenth (official) screen outing for lan Fleming‘s secret agent hero, the young Scottish actor plays Boris Grishenko. a hyperactive Russian computer whizzkid who helps the more intrinsically evil villains take over a satellite weapons system
with the ability to erase all the information from
the world‘s computers. lfever there was a Bond
baddie that just had to be played by the latter halfofthe Victor and Barry stage duo, it’s Boris who, despite all the suffering his actions cause. still manages to maintain a schoolboy charm. At the first big screening of Goldeneye in London. Cumming arrived bundled up in a chunky duffel coat, wrapped in a checked
‘Boris wants to prove that he’s the best, that he’s invincible. He’s not the evil, pet-rubbing sort of villain, he’s just a
big show-oft, a wee boy really.’
yellow Rupert The Bear scarf, sooking from a straw stuck in a big cola carton. Hardly the greatest threat to world peace.
'You kind of like him a wee bit.’ admits the man behind Boris. ‘but it’s because he’s a bit dippy and naive. Boris wants to prove that he’s the best. that he’s invincible. He‘s just young and arrogant, really. Hacking into the Department of Justice in America in that scene at the beginning, he just does that for kicks in