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6 year oldMICHAEL Jackson did a lot as an entertainer, but there was one thing he wanted to do that he was never able to — play 007 himself.
In his new memoir, Who Is Michael Ovitz?, longtime Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz recalls a meeting when the King of Pop told him he wanted to play British Secret Agent James Bond.
“As he talked, his hat fell into the guacamole in front of him, and he picked it out and put it back on — unfortunately, with a blob of guacamole attached, which began to slide down the brim. Ron Meyer tapped my leg to draw my attention to it, and we all watched in horrified fascination as it slid lower and lower while Michael was pitching us hard on how he was America’s next action hero. Then the blob fell off, and Ron totally lost it. I cracked up, too, and Michael stalked out.”
Ovitz had to run after the Thriller singer to do damage control, at which point Jackson told him what specific role he had in mind.
“I went and found him and explained for 15 minutes that we hadn’t been laughing at him, but at the incident. … Finally, Michael’s face cleared. ‘OK, Ovitz. OK,’ he said. ‘But I want to play James Bond.’ I am proud to report I didn’t laugh, this time,” he wrote.
The agent informed Jackson that he might not be the right fit for the role, saying, “You’re thinly built, you’re too sensitive, you won’t be credible as a block of stone. You’d be great at it, of course, but it’d be bad for you.”
Jackson may not have ever gotten to play Bond, but that didn’t keep him away from the big screen. Aside from his most famous role in 1978’s The Wiz, the singer also starred in Moonwalker and made a cameo in Men In Black 2.
Fun fact: Will Smith only met Michael Jackson once and it wasn’t on the set of Men In Black 2. Watch Smith tell his hilarious story about meeting the King of Pop in a closet at the BET Awards in the video below.
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This was originally published on the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.
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