British actor SAM RILEY won the lead role in recent movie CONTROL after contacting a casting agent to ask if he could play JAMES BOND.

The 27-year-old was desperate to play the superspy in the 007 film franchise - but ended up being recommended for the part of suicidal Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis in the low-budget biopic instead.
He tells the New York Post's gossip column PageSix, "I was bartending and folding shirts for a living and I was in a band, but we broke up, so I gave it a try." Riley's debut performance in the biopic won him the Most Promising Newcomer Award at the 2007 British Independent Film Awards earlier this year (28Nov07).