Andrew Clarke, a relatively unknown Australian television actor, caught producer Cubby Broccoli's attention after appearing in the 1985 miniseries Anzacs and was screen-tested to replace Roger Moore as James Bond. The studio offered him a contract, but Clarke found the terms extraordinarily restrictive: a ten-year binding agreement that would allow Eon Productions to loan him out to other studios whilst paying him a pittance whilst pocketing the remainder.

When Clarke attempted to renegotiate—proposing double the salary and half the contract length—producers rejected his counter-offer outright and withdrew the opportunity. Rather than surrender a decade of his career and earning potential for what he described as an "unbelievably terrible" financial package, Clarke declined. The article contextualises this decision against a pattern in which all Bond actors since the 1960s have been established performers; casting unknowns in the role, it suggests, has consistently backfired.