Prince William — and the world — was in for a huge surprise from Queen Elizabeth II in 2012. Now the Prince of Wales, William once admitted had a few choice swear words on the tip of his tongue when he saw his late grandmother in a James Bond video.
Queen Elizabeth made a cameo alongside Daniel Craig in a James Bond video for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony
The opening ceremony at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England, included a special introduction for the queen. She took her seat only after a short pre-recorded clip of her and Daniel Craig, as James Bond, played.
The six-minute video showed Craig, sporting a tuxedo as the iconic film character, going to Buckingham Palace. There he saw the queen — and her beloved corgis — before escorting her, via helicopter, to the Olympic stadium.
Their chopper flew over London, past landmarks and waving spectators before finally reaching the stadium. Finally, the two appeared to parachute into the stadium amid cheers from the crowd.
Seconds later, the queen was introduced. She headed to her seat wearing the same salmon-hued outfit seen in the video to a standing ovation.
Prince William recalled his reaction to Queen Elizabeth’s James Bond video in 2016: ‘Nothing was told to any of us’
In Elizabeth at 90—A Family Tribute, William remembered just how surprised he’d been to see his grandma in the James Bond video.
“I remember certain expletives coming out of my mouth when I realized what was going on,” he said (via Newsweek).
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“It was actually a very well-kept secret,” the now-40-year-old continued. “Probably more of a state secret than some of the intelligence documents that she receives. Nothing was told to any of us. Clearly, they knew that certain grandchildren would go around telling everybody too much!”
Meanwhile, Seb Coe, chairman of the London Olympics organizing committee, recalled the video in his 2013 autobiography, Running My Life. To his recollection, William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, cheered for the queen.
According to Coe, they shouted, “Go, Granny!” when the queen’s double jumped out of the helicopter (via Mirror).
Queen Elizabeth improvised her dialogue in the video after telling the director she ‘should have a line’
Frank Cottrell Boyce, the Bond video’s co-writer, opened up about how it was made after the queen’s death in September 2022. He shared the queen didn’t originally have any speaking parts.
“When I was typing the script, I didn’t quite know how you would type the character of the queen,” the writer told BBC Breakfast.
So how did the queen end up saying, “Good evening, Mr. Bond,” to Craig? According to Cottrell Boyce, the line was her idea. Queen Elizabeth told director Danny Boyle she “should have a line,” he recalled.
“On the day that we were filming, she said to Danny Boyle, ‘I think I should have a line.’ So she bagged that line, there wasn’t a line in the script – she improv’d,” he said.
Queen Elizabeth later appeared in a 2016 Invictus Games video with the Duke of Sussex and a 2022 Paddington Bear sketch.
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