After Lewis Hamilton Says No to Tom Cruise, Lawrence Stroll Had to Give a Hard Pass to James Bond

It is well known around the F1 world that seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton turned down a very attractive opportunity to star alongside Tom Cruise in the action movie Top Gun: Maverick. However, turns out that Hamilton is not the only one in the F1 paddock who has been considered suitable for movies. As per BusinessF1, Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll was offered the villain role in a Hollywood movie.

Aston Martin has been synonymous with James Bond for more than 50 years. The idea of the British spy driving anything other than a fully customized Aston Martin in his movies is sacrilegious at this point.

BusinessF1 reports that it was during the financial negotiations for Aston Martin’s placement in the latest Bond movie, No Time to Die, that Lawrence Stroll met the producers of the series, Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. Impressed by the attitude and stature of the Canadian Billionaire, the producer duo decided to offer him the role of a villainous industrialist in the next James Bond movie.

Why Stroll cannot play a Bond villain

BusinessF1 believes that even though Stroll was initially attracted to the idea of playing a Bond villain, most of the chances are that he would deny the opportunity. This is because Stroll is not really sure what playing a villain might do to his image as a businessman.

Apart from the PR issues, Stroll would have also had to take out nearly six weeks of time for shooting purposes. The shooting will coincide with the 2025 Formula 1 season and with how involved Stroll is with his F1 team, it is highly unlikely that the Business mogul would be able to take out that much time from his schedule.

However, there is also the factor that Stroll might not even remain the chairman of Aston Martin till the end of 2025. In that case, the issue becomes even more confusing and Stroll would definitely not want to be involved in anything relating to his ex-company.

Is Lawrence Stroll looking for an exit from Aston Martin?

Stroll made news when he decided to offload 34.9 million of his Aston Martin shares worth $145 Million to Chinese car company Geely. There is a slight chance that if things keep on going south for Aston Martin, Stroll would want to hand the company over to Geely and take the exit route.

If that happens, then the future of the F1 project Aston Martin would be under quite a bit of uncertainty. Ever since Stroll took over the British company, he has left no stone unturned to ensure Aston Martin becomes a heavyweight name in Formula 1.

However, with his villainous aura already seen on screen via Netflix’s Drive to Survive, many people believe that he would indeed fit in perfectly in the role of an antagonist. Maybe the James Bond producers also had the same line of thought.