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James Purefoy has spoken candidly about missing out on the opportunity to play James Bond.

The British actor, whose recent projects include Sex Education, Altered Carbon, and Pennyworth, was screen-tested for the iconic role in the '90s but ultimately lost out to Pierce Brosnan. He became a contender again around a decade later before Daniel Craig was cast as 007.

“There have been jobs, Bond being one of them, where you get very close to getting something and then you start pulling away because the ramifications of what would happen if you got it become a little troubling,” he told The Independent. “The closer I got to Bond, the more I wasn’t really sure.”

Purefoy also suggested that Craig himself had similar reservations about taking on the high-profile role, saying: “From what I gather, he turned it down two or three times because of a similar thing – being uncomfortable with being locked into a massive corporate world where you’re gonna spend more time publicizing the movie and wearing watches and suits and having to go to photo shoots and publicity drives."

He continued: "And you end up having to deal with a lot of stuff that you’d just really rather not deal with because it’s not your job. It’s not what you do. What you do is exist as somebody else between action and cut. That’s the purest and most interesting part of the job."

Purefoy also admitted that being linked to the franchise hasn't always been easy for him, saying: “I kind of wish it had never been found out that I’d gone up for Bond. It has plagued my life – the job that I didn’t get.”

Happily, Purefoy is very much booked and busy and will soon be seen in season two of A Discovery of Witches, which premieres January 9 on Sundance Now and Shudder. Bond fans can check out our recent feature on 11 actors in the running to succeed Daniel Craig as 007.

Would you like to have seen James Purefoy as James Bond?