However whereas an actor from Eire or the Antipodes can be acceptable, the consensus appears to be than an American Bond is a step too far, regardless of how good his accent. Californian beefcake Austin Butler dominated himself out on that foundation, calling the idea “sacrilegious”. It may appear arbitrary, however Bond’s emergence as an icon of post-war British identification was, partially, a response to the rising cultural dominance of the USA. “I agree with Austin Butler,” Bruce Feirstein, screenwriter on three Bond movies, tells the BBC. “The explanation Bond is so cherished internationally is particularly as a result of he isn’t American.”
