Admit it – you’ve used the line ‘the name’s Bond… James Bond’ at least once in your life when someone’s enquired about your moniker.
The quip is a crowd pleaser, even if we have heard it a hundred times before – but according to these blokes, it’s not a joke you want to use on police officers, as they usually don’t see the funny side of it.
A host of men who are legally named James Bond have told how they ended up in hot water with cops after identifying themselves when they were pulled over.
Take a look at this:
In 2022, award-winning producer Matthew Bauer dropped his documentary drama titled The Other Fellow, which ‘explores the lives of real men’ who all share the same name as 007.
Although cinematic icons such as Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, and Sean Connery have each borrowed the moniker over the years without issue, these lot have had a very different experience.
The men each revealed how sharing the same name as the fictional spy has impacted their lives, from their days in the playground all the way up to adulthood.
Each guy had a very different backstory too, as the synopsis for The Other Fellow explains it features a ‘gay New York theatre director, a Swedish 007 super-fan with a Nazi past and an African American Bond accused of murder’.
The latter – AKA James Bond Jr – is who ended up serving jail time for simply telling police officers what his name is.
In the documentary, Bond explained what happened on one occasion when he was pulled over by law enforcement in South Bend, Indiana.
He explained that officers approached the vehicle and asked him to produce some identification, however, he had to inform them that he ‘didn’t have one’.
James Bond Jr revealed he ended up behind bars after telling police officers his name (Amazon Prime)
Recalling his experience, Bond said: “When it got to me I was like, ‘Sh*t’. My name is James Bond. [The officer] looked at me like, ‘I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me the truth’.
“My name is James Bond!”
Bond then revealed that he ended up getting ‘convicted’ for a crime as a result of this exchange, although he didn’t get into the specifics of what he was charged with.
He continued: “I did get convicted of that. Would you believe that?
“The judge said that I was obstructing the police officer from doing his job, by me saying my name in a ‘joking manner’.
“I looked at the judge like, ‘Are you serious?’ How can I say James Bond in a joking manner? I just said my name!
“I had to do like 60 days in a county jail for that. 60 days. That right there, at that instance, made me look at [police] a different way.
“Because I knew that I had a long way to go with them about my name being James Bond and I’m black.”
Bond’s name also came back to bite him when he was wrongly accused of murder in 2012, as he was dubbed the ‘devil James Bond’, according to The Sun.
A string of men told how sharing the same name as 007 has impacted their lives (Sony Pictures)
Reflecting on what happened, the bloke said his arrest only made his name ‘stick out [even] more’.
Turns out this fella would much rather have another film-related name instead…the Dark Knight.
“I’ve always called myself the Dark Knight,” Bond continued. “See by me being dark-skinned and flash, I’m the Dark Knight.
“They’d never stop calling me 007, they still call me that to this day. But I correct them, because I don’t like that.
“I don’t like to be called 007, ugh, man. Them two names p**s me off the most – calling me 007 and calling me Jim. Jim is a white person name, I already got another white person name!
“James Bond then Jim? No, I can’t be all these white people, I can’t do that.”
Aussie director Bauer previously told how he was wowed by some of the mens stories which he delved into in The Other Fellow.
“I thought it would just be Aston Martin jokes and ‘Shaken not stirred’, but there’s a lot more to it,” he said. “They told me stories of being on the run from the police, crazy James Bond fans and stalkers.”
You can find the documentary on streaming services such as Amazon Prime, ITVX, Apple TV, Google Play Movies & TV.
