Queen Elizabeth agreed to participate in the Olympic “007” spoof after being “persuaded” by Danny Boyle.
The late monarch, who passed away on September 8 at the age of 96 after a 70-year reign, co-starred in a sketch for the opening of the 2012 Olympics in London with “James Bond” actor Daniel Craig back in 2012.
In the sketch, she went on a mission with the eponymous spy before a stand-in was seen skydiving into the London Stadium. It was acclaimed director Danny Boyle who initially convinced Her Late Majesty to participate.
There isn’t a day that goes by without someone in the globe asking me about this, said Lord Sebastian Coe, a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympics. Many people continue to think that she leaped from the aircraft in earnest.
He recalled the “extraordinary moment” when director Danny Boyle said, “I’ve done some market research and it shows that the Queen and James Bond, in that order, are the global iconic figures,” adding, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get them to jump out of a helicopter?” “It was the only day during the seven-year period of preparation for the games that I felt the globe wobble,” he said.
And to be fair, Danny was the one who successfully completed the task. Many things have been said about it, but Danny was the one who truly convinced her.
Speaking on September 19, the day of the Queen’s burial, Coe continued by stating that when he first presented the skit’s concepts to Anne, Princess Royal, the late Queen Elizabeth’s and Prince Philip’s daughter, she only prompted one question.
“My initial task was to take the Princess Royal through the creative notions,” he told BBC News, “and I recall these kind of ham-handed drawings. The only question I received was ‘What type of helicopter?’”