‘Have you ever noticed how, in Hollywood movies, all the villains are played by Brits?’ asks a dinner-jacketed Sir Ben Kingsley in the commercial for the new Jaguar F-Type Coupe.
Entitled ‘Rendezvous’ and aired at the Super Bowl, it features three heavyweight British baddies being chocolate-voiced, menacingly cool, and looking exceptionally dapper, rich, and Bond-villainesque. Alongside Sir Ben Kingsley (and let’s ignore the fact that one of Sir Ben’s most famous roles was when he played Mahatma Gandhi) are Mark Strong and Tom Hiddleston. Poor old Alan Rickman, Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Irons, I say; I’d have thought they’d be a shoe-in for representing archetypal British baddies.
Die hard with a nice chianti…?
But the trio here do a tremendous job. Run by Spark 44 (Jaguar's creative agency) and Mindshare (its media agency), the advertising campaign for the Jaguar F-Type Coupe is being run to pitch the manufacturer against its other luxury counterparts, including Mercedes-Benz and Porsche in the American luxury sector. And what better British export/American import is there than James Bond – and this ad is blatantly and unashamedly a Bond rip-off.
When the latest 007 film hit the box office, much was made of Skyfall’s spectacular use of the London cityscape. Directed by Oscar winner Tom Hooper, of Les Miserables and The King’s Speech fame, Rendezvous shares the same classy backdrop, taking in a number of iconic landmarks. No CGI here – it’s all filmed in the capital, in all its richness and sophisticated beauty.
To add to its movie credentials, the soundtrack to the ad was scored by legendary film composer Alexandre Desplat, and recorded at Abbey Road by one of the best orchestras in the world – the London Symphony Orchestra.
The script is tight and shares the Bond-like quippery – but its cleverness is that one can also apply every line after the initial question to Jaguar as well as to Brits:
Have you ever noticed how, in Hollywood movies, all the villains are played by Brits?
Maybe we just sound right.
We’re more focused, more precise.
We’re always one step ahead.
We’ve a certain style. An eye for detail.
And we’re obsessed by power.
Stiff upper lip is key.
And we all drive Jaguars!
Oh, yes. It’s good to be bad.
So back to the question: why ARE so many villains in Hollywood played by Brits? We seem to owe a lot to the Bard of Avon himself. Both Strong and Kingsley cite Shakespeare as a reason for the evil heritage – and Hiddleston has taken the critics by storm in Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse and the National Theatre Live.
‘A villain is a mask of elegance and style, behind which is a whirring and brilliant intelligence,’ he says. ‘But the trick is to make it all look easy. The devil plays all the best tunes – particularly in a British accent.’
Mark Strong suggests that Brits are well suited to playing the bad guy because, ‘we’re exotic and unusual. That fits the role of the bad guy very well. We’re unafraid of playing villains,’ he says. ‘We didn’t grow up in a culture which reveres the hero necessarily. We have Richard III, we have Macbeth. The reason why villains are important is [because] a hero is only as good as its villain. You can’t be a hero without a villain.’
The background of Shakespeare is also Sir Ben Kingsley’s first thought when he considers why Brits are such good bad guys. ‘My formative years were with the RSC. Shakespeare’s villains are extraordinary, they’re brilliant,’ he explains. ‘They’re so richly layered that a British actor finds it almost impossible to create a two-dimensional villain if he’s explored our wonderful Shakespearean heritage.’
Where some car commercials just make you go ‘hm’, there’s no doubt that Jaguar's Rendezvous commercial hits just the right note – not least to appeal to our American cousins. For your delectation, here is the double-length director’s cut of the ad. I suggest you watch it in full-screen mode. I might give it one more viewing before I remortgage my house to rush out and buy an F-Type Coupe…
Ashley is a copywriter, blogger and editor
Follow him on Twitter
