Christoph Waltz is sick and tired of hearing that James Bond rumor. You know the one I’m talking about — the one that suggests he’s secretly playing iconic Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, even though his character name is Franz Oberhauser. Still, it’s quite entertaining to see him get so worked up over the matter. In yet another interview where he’s asked about the rumor, he once again chooses the path of denial.
GQ UK was the arena in which this went down, and Waltz had this to say,
That is absolutely untrue. That rumour started on the Internet, and the Internet is a pest. The name of my character is Franz Oberhauser.
Could Waltz be pulling a move from the Benedict Cumberbatch playbook? The Star Trek Into Darkness star continuously told reporters he was not playing iconic Trek villain Khan in the J.J. Abrams-directed sequel, and, low and behold, he was! That strategy of denial blew up in everyone’s faces. However, this isn’t to say Waltz is going down this direction. His constant denial — and now even his frustration over getting asked the question — could be signs of his honesty. And yet, we have to remember what Naomie Harris told reporters back during press for Skyfall. She outright said on the set of the twenty-third Bond movie that she was not playing Moneypenny, but rather a field agent named Eve. The Bond crew already used this strategy in the past, but the question is, are they doing it again here?
The first Spectre teaser trailer didn’t help Waltz’s case. In the footage, his character — this so-called Oberhauser — was seen sitting at a long table surrounded by what are presumably his SPECTRE associates and shrouded in shadow. "Welcome, James. It’s been a long time," we hear him say. "And finally, here we are." Earlier on we saw 007 fondling an old photograph of two boys standing next to a man in ski attire. In the novel Octopussy and The Living Daylights by Ian Fleming, there is a character named Hannes Oberhauser, a ski instructor who Bond describes as "something of a father to me at a time when I happened to need one." It seems likely that this is where Waltz’s character gets his last name, but there definitely seems to be more to this story than anyone is letting on.
While on the set of Spectre, a reporter asked if there were any cats in this film, hinting at Blofeld’s signature feline companion. Producer Michael G. Wilson said he couldn’t answer, so it seems like Blofeld will be popping up in some capacity. The question is, where?
