Bruce as Secret Agent

The term “secret agent” immediately conjures up images of the ultimate spy, James Bond. The image of James Bond is larger than life. He's the man women dream of and the man other men want to be like. Bond has the kind of presence that makes heads turn when he walks into a room. He's sophisticated, suave, charming and urbane. He has charisma and panache. His eyes reflect the intelligence and years of experience that have kept him alive in the world's most dangerous occupation.

Another related image of “secret agent” comes from the series called Danger Man in the UK patrick macgoohan and Canada and later expanded into Secret Agent in the US. John Drake, played by Patrick McGoohan, was also suave and sophisticated, with charisma and panache. Like Bond, he had a dry sense of humor. But unlike Bond, Drake was a no-nonsense spy who didn’t fool around with the ladies. McGoohan went on to reprise the John Drake role (though never by name) in the 60s cult classic, The Prisoner, an allegorical TV series featuring a kidnapped and imprisoned secret agent named only “Number 6.” Though his captors tried to break him, they never succeeded in breaking his spirit or his soul.

In the heyday of secret agent TV series, including I Spy, The Avengers, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. the premises varied but the agents were almost uniformly dapper and/or charming, charismatic and strong. The TV series of the 90s, La Femme Nikita, continued that tradition. Nikita, played by stunning Peta Wilson, was all that and more. Her colleagues, operatives Michael and Jurgen also fit the mold. In real life, a good secret agent has to blend in with the woodwork and not draw attention to him- or herself but that never bothered the movie business. We want our heroes to be like James Bond—larger than life.

With the arrival of the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, in Casino Royale, we see a grittier, less sophisticated secret agent but one who may yet grow into the suave Bond that we all know and love. What Craig, even at this early point, has in common with the other Bonds is charisma and intensity. Will the hoopla surrounding the new Bond usher in a new wave of movies featuring secret agents? Too early to tell but just in case, we have plenty to say about what makes a memorable secret agent and who should play the role.

The Presence

The man who plays a memorable secret agent of the kind described above needs to be special, someone who stands out from the crowd of dime-a-dozen, run-of-the mill, flavor-of-the-week pretty boys. In referring to everyone’s favorite secret agent James Bond, Entertainment Weekly calls this quality "Bond-ability--the ability to make us forget Sean Connery." Not easy shoes to fill. Of Connery, Pierce Brosnan has said, "…it's his presence. He's so powerful, had so much animal charisma." It will take more than a pretty face to follow that act.

This is a job for a man, not a boy. And Bruce Payne is the man for the job.

Presence isn't learned. You either have it or you don't. It's part bearing, part self-assurance, part self-confidence, part je ne sais quoi. Evidence that Bruce has it, both on-screen and off, is easy to find. As a young man barely out of his teens, he received an award for "physical presence" from his alma mater, the prestigious RADA. Off-screen Bruce wows interviewers. Said one female writer for You Magazine, obviously enchanted by him, "When you meet Bruce Payne that award for 'physical presence' comes as no surprise." Another interviewer, who found him both sexy and smart, commented, "A conversation with Bruce Payne is interrupted by meaningful gestures mixed with head-throwing, teeth-flashing hearty laughs, guaranteed to send you reeling."

On-screen, Bruce's immense physical presence is vital and magnetic. In Kounterfeit, his character Frankie, a powerfully masculine figure, is even described as a man with a “very, very strong presence" by one of the other characters. When Bruce is in a scene, whether as the primary focus or in the background, it's hard to take your eyes off him. In the TV series La Femme Nikita, he even manages to turn your attention away from gorgeous Peta Wilson, no easy feat. In Highlander: Endgame, more than one reviewer has commented on how Bruce steals the scene from the two main stars, Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul, whenever he appears as the villainous Jacob Kell.

Presence, says our dictionary, includes not only bearing but self-assurance and self-confidence as well. Bond's self-assurance, as described by Ian Fleming, borders on arrogance. He's good and he knows it. But it is deserved arrogance, if you will, rather than self-appointed narcissism. Bruce oozes such arrogant self-assurance in his villain roles in films such as Highlander: Endgame, Warlock III, Full Eclipse and One's Man's Justice. Like Bond, he can also convey arrogance and sexy charm at the same time, as he does in Smart Money. Or he can convey dignified self-confidence as the Chief Medical Officer in Britannic and cocky self-assurance as the police detective in the TV series Yellowthread Street.

Presence comes in different flavors. Connery's includes a raw "animal charisma." For Bruce, the major ingredient is intensity, a characteristic he shares with Bond. Bond lives on the edge, rarely more than a step or two away from death. So he lives, loves and fights for his country intensely. No laid back, quiet soft-edged boys need apply.

Intensity is truly Bruce's hallmark. As the racist/fascist thug Flikker in Absolute Beginners, he is hotly intense, looking as if the veins in his head are going to burst any time in his last angry scene. As the psychopathic terrorist in Passenger 57, his withering glare is so fiercely intense that you flinch from it just watching the movie. He is coolly intense as Jacob Kell while he so nonchalantly lops off heads in Endgame. But as Jurgen in the TV series La Femme Nikita, his intensity, subtle and controlled, is alluring and intoxicating rather than menacing.

Another crucial ingredient in Bruce's great presence is his striking voice--deep, resonant and authoritative, either seductively soothing or sexily menacing as needed, the kind that immediately compels your attention in any scene. In The Howling VI, for example, you hear his voice before you see him--a silky, sinuous but commanding voice that tells you someone important is about to appear. Someone you had better listen to if you know what’s good for you.

In addition to presence, a memorable secret agent has to have charm. Women don't fall into an agent’s arms merely because of his good looks alone. There isn't a film in which Bruce does not exude charm, regardless of the role. Like presence, charm comes in many flavors, and Bruce is master of them all. He is sweetly charming as Dr. Burton in Silence Like Glass and suavely charming as Major Baker in Britannic. But his specialty, not unlike Bond, is (good) bad boy charm. As the bad boy secret operative with a shady past in La Femme Nikita, he is mysteriously charming. As Nick Eden, the hip detective in Yellowthread Street, his bad boy charm is mischievous, with a delicious smirk. His charm is sexy but malevolent as Lawrence McNiece, the crooked computer analyst in Smart Money, cool and laid back as Frankie, the shady strip joint manager in Kounterfeit.

It has been said that Bruce is charming even when he is creepy and we agree. Contrast his portrayal of the villainous henchman Damodar with Jeremy Irons' character Profion in Dungeons & Dragons. Both are evil but Damodar is still strangely charming while Profion is simply creepy. In Warlock III, Bruce is both menacing and charming, sinister and sexy, with what one writer called a "sexy-scary" look. As Satan in Switch, he has a debonair and, yes, devilish charm. Even as the mute assassin in Wonderland, he radiates an eerie but worldly and compelling charm.

Like Bond, a memorable secret agent is not only charming but sophisticated, suave and urbane as well. According to the dictionary, sophistication denotes "appealing to the intellect, not suited to popular tastes, complex." Not a role for glossy pretty boys who are too young to be either complex or urbane. This kind of suaveness requires age and experience. All of Bruce's roles have complexity, as he plays them, but the ones that also portray an air of sophistication include the role of McNiece in Smart Money, the haughty General Martin Dupre in The Cisco Kid, and the very British Chief Medical Officer in Britannic. As Major Baker, Bruce is ever so suave when he kisses Lady Lewis' hand, exchanging clever repartee with a roguish twinkle in his eyes.

As an added bonus for the credibility and suaveness of the character, Bruce is also an expert with accents. A good secret agent is multi-lingual; we need to believe that he fluently speaks the languages that roll off his tongue in the films. Bruce, who has done convincing Cockney, American, French and Russian accents, can persuade us that he didn't get his language lessons from a cheap tourist guidebook, unlike some recent performances by high-profile actors who will go unnamed.

The final ingredients in the recipe for the quality of Bond-ability that a memorable secret agent needs are unpredictability and mystery. There is always an air of mystery surrounding Bond; it's part of the mystique. We know very little about James Bond, the person; his emotional life is rarely revealed. Of his air of mystery, one fan insightfully observed that Bruce always looks like he knows something he's not telling. He conveys this mystery well as the tight-lipped Jurgen in La Femme Nikita, the tormented Edward de Lapoer in Necronomicon, and the tortured ex-FBI profiler Marshall Kane, who may or may not be the killer in Ripper.

As for unpredictability, Bruce states in one of his interviews, "I like to stay one step ahead and not do the predictable." Each role that Bruce has played brought something fresh and new to his repertoire. We can expect him to add a "sparkling edge of unpredictability," a twist to any new role, one that has never been done before.

The Gadgets

"Gadget-ability" is yet another critical element in the Bond mystique and in any memorable secret agent film. From The Avengers to La Femme Nikita, fancy gadgets have abounded. Entertainment Weekly archly calls it "the ability to operate heavy machinery on Q." Cars, planes, trains, helicopters, big rigs. Revolvers, assault rifles, wrist dart guns. SCUBA gear, space helmets. From the classic Walther PPK to the Walther P99, Bond is never without his trusted friend, the gun, and never at a loss to operate any vehicle or weapon, or disarm any nuclear bomb. Other secret agents have been equally adept.

Bruce is no stranger to wrestling with moving vehicles and heavy machinery. He's piloted a supersonic experimental plane in Operation Intercept and a spaceship in Ravager, been thrown out of a plane in Passenger 57, rode point in a helicopter in Riders, slugged it out on a moving train in Sweepers. In Kounterfeit, he looks equally at home cruising in a BMW or tooling along in an old Ford pickup truck. In Yellowthread Street, he's nothing if not hip and cool in a red '65 Mustang. That Aston-Martin Vanquish or the Aston Martin BB5-3 would suit him just fine. That Stromberg motorbike would be made to order.

From assault rifles and automatic weapons in La Femme Nikita to heavy artillery in Full Eclipse, Bruce definitely knows his way around a gun. In Kounterfeit, he cuts quite a heroic figure with his two-fisted blazing guns, while terrifying us with his fiery gunplay in Passenger 57 and One Man's Justice.

Bond has also been known to use an exotic weapon or two. Swords and knives? No problem. Bruce learned swordplay at RADA and has been fencing since 1980. Check out the fight scenes in Highlander: Endgame to see a master at work--and with real swords, not props. In Wonderland, he swooshes that machete around with real conviction and perfect form. The most exotic weapon of all, however, is the scary spiky gauntlet he sports so menacingly in Dungeons & Dragons. Guaranteed to clear space on the rush hour train.

And for very good measure, Bruce, who does his own stunts, has the physical prowess to pull off any fight scene convincingly, whether guns, swords, or martial arts. We can really believe he would beat the pants off any bad guy and come out unscathed.

The Sizzle Factor

Entertainment Weekly calls it "babe-ability--the ability to conquer more than just villains." We call it the sizzle factor. Sex appeal, sexual charisma, the ability to make gorgeous women fall into his arms and bed. Whatever you call it, a memorable secret agent has to have it. No secret agent film (well, except for McGoohan’s Secret Agent Man) is complete without a luscious woman (or two) in a steamy embrace (or three).

"Sexily sinister and dangerously good-looking" could be a description of James Bond but it's not. It's the way a writer for Cosmopolitan described Bruce Payne. Bruce undeniably has the sizzle factor. His intense physical presence, masculine good looks, dazzling smile, a platinum-grade charm that oozes through even in his most villainous roles, and the sexiest blue eyes since Paul Newman guarantee that Bruce will be believable as the spy no woman can resist.

Here's one fan response to the question of Bruce's babe-ability: "Two words. Baby blues." It's unquestionably Bruce's eyes that his women fans swoon over the most. "Mesmerizing," "hypnotizing," "bewitching," "leaves you spellbound," "beautiful and brilliant," "sparkling," and "his eyes speak volumes" are just a few of the phrases used to describe Bruce's expressive pale blue-grey eyes. Eyes that are sexy-scary in one film, tender and full of desire in another.

Evidence of Bruce's on-screen sexiness is not hard to find. As secret operative Jurgen in the TV series La Femme Nikita, the developing romance with Nikita kept fans glued expectantly to the screen over the three episodes of this story line. Jurgen was, in fact, voted the most popular character that year, tying with Nikita herself. Mysterious, with a shady past but one of the "good guys," Jurgen is subtly tantalizing. When he finally gets to kiss Nikita, the collective sigh could be heard round the TV world. Female fans got two treats--the steamy kiss and Bruce without his shirt (how did he get that shirt off with only one hand, while holding Nikita with the other?!) Any woman who doesn't think this scene sizzles needs to put herself in a microwave and set it on Thaw!

The directors, perhaps understanding that Bruce's sex appeal has no need to advertise itself in neon lights, have opted to make the sex scenes in two of his movies subtle and sensuous rather than hot and heavy. In Ripper, two tortured souls allow themselves to become vulnerable to each other in a tender, understated embrace far more intense and passionate than many that are much more graphic. In Kounterfeit, when Frankie slowly carries Colleen up the stairs and falls into bed kissing her, fans sigh. But when he looks up at her with his shirt half open, his long blond hair undone, and those mesmerizing eyes, we melt. His eyes convey so much--wonder, astonishment, desire. Every woman who watched that movie must have secretly wished that her man would look at her that way. Oh yes, bedroom eyes indeed.

In Highlander: Endgame, the scene between Kell and Faith sizzles merely because of Bruce's sinuous voice and sexy eyes alone. The archvillain Jacob Kell, annoyed at his lover Faith for being, well--unfaithful, eyes her with a lazy insolence that says "I still own you." The scene crackles with sexual tension as he slowly draws his leather-gloved hand across her lips, the only actual physical contact between them. Nothing more is needed to make us shiver.

Babe-ability? A secret agent has to have it and Bruce has got it.

The Look

A memorable secret agent has to be a man who makes heads turn. Knock-out handsome like Connery, Moore, Dalton, or Brosnan. But handsome alone is not enough; the actor has to have the Look. The Look has to convey authority, arrogance, irony, a hint of cruelty. He has to wear clothes with savoir faire (what Entertainment Weekly called "tux-ability"). His face has to have the character that comes from age and experience; he can't be a young puppy and still be a memorable secret agent.

Bruce Payne has the Look. Handsome in a manly way, with strong, sculptured features, a magnificent nose and strong jaw that give him a commanding profile, he exudes authority and intense male energy. His face has just enough lines to add character without detracting from his handsome appeal.

Many of the best film secret agents have a casual, charming arrogance with a trace of irony. Charming arrogance is one of Bruce's fortes. In films such as Highlander: Endgame, Warlock III, and One Man's Justice, his villains are cold, arrogant, and ironic, yet charming in a creepy sort of way. In Smart Money, a very different role, he comes off as arrogant, charming and sexy all at the same time, just as Bond does. There's even a hint of the "cruel mouth" that Fleming describes for Bond in the curled lip that Bruce can turn so easily into a derisive sneer.

That arrogance is not just conveyed through his expressions and stance but through Bruce's eyes as well. This is a man who can act with his eyes alone, as he did as Echo in Wonderland, a role with no spoken words. His piercing cold blue-grey eyes, both menacing and self-assured as the assassin, were so scary that no words were necessary. As the terrorist in Passenger 57, his fierce glare is withering and heart-stopping. Yet his highly expressive eyes can just as easily convey desire, as Frankie in Kounterfeit; determined courage as Jurgen in La Femme Nikita; or kindness and warmth as Dr. Burton in Silence Like Glass.

But there's more than mere arrogance to the look of a memorable secret agent. It's an arrogance borne out of self-assurance, not conceit. He knows he's good and he is. There's not a movie that Bruce has made where he didn't radiate such self-assurance--from the computer genius in Smart Money to the tough club manager in Kounterfeit; from the heroic pilot in Operation Intercept to the archvillain in Highlander: Endgame. Even when he plays the psychologically tortured teacher in Ripper, we can't imagine him as a loser.

There's an aura of mystery about secret agents such as Bond too. As secret operative Jurgen in La Femme Nikita, Bruce has been described as "always looking as though he knows something that he's not letting on, which of course he does. Perfect for a spy role."

Clothes are another integral part of the Look of a memorable secret agent. Bond, it has been said, lives in the details. A sharp dresser with great savoir faire, Bond looks equally at home in a Savile Row suit, a tuxedo, or causal sports clothes. EW calls it "tux-ability." Pictures don't lie; Bruce knows how to wear a tuxedo, as the delectable photo from Smart Money shows. With his broad muscular shoulders and confident stance, Bruce would look sharp in any outfit. His films have, in fact, allowed him to show off his masculine physique in a delicious array of sensational clothing--from the blue pin stripe suit in Never Say Never Mind to the black leather coat and pants in Warlock III; from the stylish suit in Riders to the breathtaking armor in Dungeons and Dragons.

The proof is in the photos. Bruce does indeed have the Look that makes women shiver and men tremble.

We think Bruce Payne would make a memorable secret agent indeed.

Also See
Secret Agent
Jurgen page
Jurgen: The Saga Continues

This essay is adapted from the essay Ariel wrote for the Bruce as Bond web site. When it first appeared in 2003, the web site was billed as a “Bruce’s Angels” project in conjunction with AGWLBP. Since that time, all mention of Bruce’s Angels or the contributions of Ariel and Israfel to that project have been deleted on the BAB and AGWLBP web sites. The name “Bruce’s Angels” was Israfel’s concept.