Jack Lowden Addresses Those James Bond Rumors: “Very Flattering”

Jack Lowden isn’t giving anything away on his rumored screen tests for the role of James Bond.

In an interview with British GQ published on Monday, the Scottish star briefly touches on the reports — including those from The Hollywood Reporter — that he is part of a small group of actors eyed for the next incarnation of Ian Fleming’s beloved spy, next to Callum Turner and Josh O’Connor.

Lowden addresses the viral lines from his Slow Horses co-star Gary Oldman, who set the internet alight a little when he told Canada’s The Morning Show in September that the role had been cast and he was hoping it was Lowden. “They have made their choice, but they have not announced it yet. So my fingers are crossed for Jack,” said the English Oscar-winner. (THR was later informed by a source that the MI6 agent had not yet been chosen at that time.)

“It’s all very flattering,” says Lowden, who proceeded to pour “cold water” on the topic, according to British GQ‘s Kieran Morris. “It’s nice to be mentioned — for any role — and I’m just not really going to add to the noise,” he continues. “It’s very nice, and Gary’s a sweetheart. It’s particularly lovely, coming from someone like him. But I don’t really listen to it.”

Just last week, THR heard word that screen tests for Amazon MGM Studios’ James Bond film, directed by Dune‘s Denis Villeneuve and written by Peaky Blinders mastermind Steven Knight, would be taking place in London at the end of October. Jack O’Connell (Sinners) was rumored to initially be in the mix, but sources told us that wasn’t the case. And despite some reports, Euphoria and Frankenstein star Jacob Elordi would also not be testing.

The GQ piece made the savvy observation that the woman who cast Lowden in his breakout, Emmy-nominated role as Slow Horses‘s River Cartwright, Nina Gold, is also leading the search for Daniel Craig’s replacement.

And Lowden’s wife, Irish Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, has also been tight-lipped on the speculation. “[That’s] its own thing,” Ronan told the Associated Press in October. “We’re kind of getting on with our life, to be honest. We have plenty of other things to be dealing with. So, yeah, it’s not really a subject that’s coming up in our house, to be honest. The dog needs to be walked, the dinner needs to be made — we’re most focused on that.”

Lowden’s British GQ interview was pegged to Netflix’s hotly anticipated Pride and Prejudice, in which Lowden plays the most famous of Jane Austen’s suitors, the unknowable romantic hero Mr. Darcy.

“When I take jobs, or I’m offered them, I look at what I can get away with — I don’t buy myself in 99 percent of the roles I do, but if other people do, I get a kick out of that,” Lowden explains about being surprised that he was one of writer Dolly Alderton’s top choices for the part. “I’m not everybody’s first choice for most of the roles I’ve played, and I quite enjoy that.”