The James Bond Stunt That Left Alan Cumming Scarred
Ah, James Bond—a franchise of fast cars, sultry spies, and, of course, death-defying stunts that push actors to their limits. And for Alan Cumming, playing the delightfully smug Russian hacker Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye (1995), that meant enduring a stunt so painful it could have been lifted straight from a Bond villain’s playbook.
Dry Ice, Real Burns: The Nightmare Stunt
Every Bond fan worth their shaken martini remembers Boris Grishenko’s ironic demise: moments after his gleeful cry of “I am invincible!” he is frozen solid by a catastrophic deluge of liquid nitrogen (or at least, that’s what the film wants us to believe).
But behind the scenes, it was the actor himself who was put on ice—quite literally.
“So what happened was they chucked the big thing of dry ice, but it was lumps of dry ice, which then stuck to my head and burned my scalp,” Cumming told Vanity Fair in a recent interview.
Burned. By dry ice. While strapped to a contraption that left him utterly immobile. A bit of a comedown for a self-proclaimed invincible hacker.
Story continues below…
Bond Films: Where Pain is Part of the Job Description
Of course, suffering for one’s craft is practically a rite of passage in the Bond universe. Daniel Craig, the franchise’s most recent brooding incarnation, has racked up an injury list that would make an MI6 medic wince: torn shoulders, ruptured calf muscles, and a snapped knee ligament.
But while Craig’s wounds were earned in brutal punch-ups and explosive set pieces, Cumming’s misfortune was simply the result of a miscalculated special effect. And just in case his predicament wasn’t harrowing enough, the GoldenEye crew had to summon actual firemen to chisel the frozen clumps off his head.
“And I couldn’t move because I had this rubber band around my waist,” Cumming added, ensuring that his suffering was both literal and deeply humiliating.
Would He Do It Again? You Bet.
Despite the agony, Scottish actor Alan Cumming doesn’t seem to bear any grudges. He even admits to embracing the enduring appeal of his character’s catchphrase:
“Sometimes when you have a catchphrase and people want you to do things from an old film or play or something, it can be annoying,” he said. “But I actually love when people want me to say, ‘I am invincible.’”
So, a bit of dry ice-induced trauma? Hardly a dealbreaker. If anything, it’s proof that even the most unlikely Bond baddies are made of stern stuff. GoldenEye may have been his first big Hollywood blockbuster, but Cumming certainly paid his dues in blood—or, in this case, in frostbite.
As for the next Bond? Well, the speculation continues and we are seemingly no nearer an announcement. Producer Barbara Broccoli has hinted that the next 007 will be a younger actor, possibly in their thirties, and surprise, surprise “not necessarily” white.
Whoever takes up the mantle, one thing is for certain: they had better brace themselves. Because if history tells us anything, and of course Alan Cumming can testify, it’s that being part of the Bond franchise hurts.
