Gerard Butler says he's too old to play James Bond.

Gerard Butler

Gerard Butler

The 49-year-old actor doesn't think he will be asked to take over the role from Daniel Craig, 51, when the actor retires after 'Bond 25' but Gerard did admit that he was approached about playing Bond 20 years ago.

Speaking to Roman Kemp on 'Capital Breakfast', he said: "No, I had a meeting for it like 20 years ago. Now, I think I'm at a nice ripe old age where they won't be coming back my way which is fine."

And he is more than happy with his own action franchise, playing Secret Service Agent Mike Banning in 'Olympus Has Fallen', 'London Has Fallen' and, most recently, 'Angel Has Fallen'.

Gerard explained: "Listen, here's the thing, you know what I love? I love Bond, I grew up on Bond but the cool thing with this is we created our own franchise.

"We created our own Bond, and that's more fun than to have to play Bond and be compared to the others like 'he's not as good as him', 'better than him', 'no, nobody ever beats Roger Moore', 'oh Sean Connery...', I won't ever have to go through that."

Meanwhile, 'Bond 25' co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge recently called the spy series a "fantasy nightmare".

The 'Fleabag' creator has been brought on board to help with the script on Cary Fukunaga's 'Bond 25' and Phoebe admitted there are parallels between James Bond and 'Killing Eve' assassin Villanelle.

She told The Hollywood Reporter: "There's something about James Bond that always intrigued me in a similar way that Villanelle did. They live a fantasy! But it's a life none of us would ever want, if we're honest. We don't want to go put a bullet in someone's head to sleep with people and have martinis. It's a kind of fantasy nightmare.

"A lot has been made of me coming on board because I'm a woman, and that's wonderful. But also I can't take credit for the movie that was written. It's Cary's movie."

When asked about reports that actress Lashana Lynch will become the new 007, she answered: "The whole thing has potential to birth new iconic characters all the time."

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