EXCLUSIVE: Meet Scott Rose-Marsh, the Man Who Might Be James Bond

An unknown actor, an Instagram message, and the world’s most coveted movie role; it was always going to be a recipe for a good mystery.

It all started with a rumour.

In August, when The Hollywood Reporter announced that an unknown actor had been plucked from obscurity to screen-test for James Bond, the internet went into a frenzy. Within hours, aggregators and tabloids spun up, eager to get the scoop on the new 007 front-runner. But with a scant IMDb footprint and an online presence that felt curiously fragmented, the man at the centre of it all felt like a ghost. Publications scrambled to answer a simple question: Who on earth is Scott Rose-Marsh? This is the unlikely story of how I found out.

The Set-Up

There is a peculiar static that envelopes every fresh whisper around 007. Ever since Daniel Craig announced his departure from the long-running British spy franchise in 2019, the internet has been a breeding ground for fancasts and furore. The years-long guessing game has spurred infamous front-runners like Idris Elba, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Tom Hardy. But even as the search for the next James Bond ramps up, the only certainty remains uncertainty.

When I saw Scott Rose-Marsh’s name pop up in the Bond conversation, I wasn’t at all surprised. I was, however, sceptical. Something about Scott Rose-Marsh didn’t add up to me. An actor with his limited filmography, whose most significant role was a lean part in the film Code Of Silence, didn’t strike me as Amazon’s top pick for the world’s most famous spy. Buoyed by curiosity, I began to dig. What I found was sparingly threadbare.

Images of the British actor were few and bafflingly far between. More than that, they told a story of perplexing inconsistency. In some, Rose-Marsh presented like an IT consultant at the work headshot day, complete with an ill-fitting white Oxford shirt and nondescript trousers, while in others, he possessed a compelling steely-eyed gaze and the kind of sharp-edged jawline that could cut glass.

More than once, my mind went to AI. Was Scott Rose-Marsh even a real person? Or was this just some sad indictment of 2025 internet culture: a fictional character born from the depths of digital boredom, thought up to fool entertainment journalists into making false reports?

Letting my curiosity take over, I updated our coverage to include the new reports and relegated the rumours to the back of my mind. To me, this was just another story that would leave as quickly as it came, a footnote in an actor search that would inevitably land on an Aaron Taylor-Johnson or Harris Dickinson type, just as we all suspected.

I was wrong.

The Message

It’s not yet 5am on a dreary winter’s morning in Sydney when my phone lights up. I reach over, expecting to turn off the first of my many alarms, but to my surprise, it isn’t the clock app that wakes me from my slumber. It’s an Instagram message from Scott Rose-Marsh. The man who would be Bond. In my DMs. How peculiar. 

I open the app, still blurry-eyed and half awake, and begin to read.

“Hi Nick. I saw the article about me. Would be interested in a chat.”

Well, this is a development. We talk a little, and he gives me the contact information for his publicist, whom he says will organise the interview. Now the fun begins. If this is indeed a hoax, I am determined not to be duped.

I shoot off the request and settle into the investigation. His publicist’s name is one I have not heard before, and bizarrely, there is little to no information about them online. What I can find leads only to the private sector. It all seems very strange.

I began tracing Rose-Marsh mentions back to 2021 and pinging writers who’d touched his name. Responses, when they come in, are thin. Still, the publicist presses on. We lock in an interview (video-only, I insist), discuss talking points, arrange photoshoots and agree on styling. 

Wading through a sea of red flags, I surge ahead, waiting for the moment when this elaborate scheme will inevitably fall apart. Somehow, it doesn’t. And then, late on a Tuesday night, bleary-eyed at my kitchen table, I watch as “Scott Rose-Marsh” appears in my Zoom waiting room.

I take a breath and click “Admit”.

To my surprise, what greets me on the other end is a real, living, breathing person. Different from the gaudy office headshot images, but remarkably similar to the chiselled, brooding figure that first caught my attention. Open, composed, disarmingly earnest, he immediately goes off-script.

“I’ve never been to Australia, but it’s on the bucket list,” he laughs in a light Southern English accent. “Lemme tell you why, because I’m a bit of a fan of the gold mining shows. I would love to come to Australia and do some metal detecting for gold in the bush. I would just totally love to do that.”

The Meeting

The story that unfolds is far stranger and more human than the internet would have you believe. Scott explains that he only came to professional acting later in life, after a horrific car accident in his late teens put a halt to his grand plans. 

“It kind of set my life back by about 13 years,” he tells me. “I didn’t return to acting until I was about 32. 

“ I went through quite a lot of PTSD and trauma. I spent a lot of my life just focusing on trying to rebuild,” he tells me. “Just getting into a car or going on a plane or going on a boat; just these everyday things were almost a trigger for me. When I got over that sort of step, by the time I got to the mid twenties, it almost set me back 10 years, almost to a child.”

The trauma sustained from that event, he reveals, was enough for him to retreat into normality, settling into a typical office job and seemingly giving up on his long-held dream. It wasn’t until he scored a lucky break in a BAFTA-nominated Welsh television show that he realised the door he’d once thought shut was still slightly ajar. Two years and a string of auditions later, Rose-Marsh packed up his life and moved to London.

Rose, speaking from the comfort of his living room, exudes a kind of nervous exuberance that is strangely endearing. He speaks quickly, his delivery peppered with an elongated burr that hints at his Southampton origins. He’s dressed in a Ralph Lauren denim western shirt that fits tight at the shoulders. Even through the Zoom screen, I can see that this is not the same Scott Rose-Marsh that the tabloid pictures would have you believe.

“If you Google me, I don’t look like any of the images that you see. I’ve lost four and a half stone, which is about 25 kilos,” he explains. “I’m quite well spoken and all the roles that I’ve played are these bad, mean henchmen. They couldn’t be any further from what I’m actually like in real life.”

Speaking on the unflattering photos that have been circulating, Scott tells me that they come from a past life, when he was working in a call centre. As he describes, they came from a corporate photoshoot day, the kind where you “line up and get your mugshot done”. Hardly the glamorous details you’d expect from a potential Bond star, but perhaps that’s why the internet is so divided. Could an average Joe really be in the running for the most iconic role in film history?

“It’s amusing, really,” Scott laughs. “I’m used to rejection; that’s kind of what I do. I’ve done so many auditions over the last five years, but I just find it fascinating—what people’s opinions are of you. Sometimes I’ll wake up at three o’clock in the morning, and I can’t sleep because I want to know what’s been said on the forums.”

Bond Rumours

His life, unsurprisingly, has changed since the Bond rumours broke.

“It has. I’ve been getting a lot of messages, emails, all sorts of things, and I was reading a lot of things about me online, which I have to say is rather amusing,” he tells me. “There’s a lot of abuse out there, as well. I’d say it’s about 80 per cent positive and 20 per cent abusive messages.”

When the first articles landed, his friends texted in disbelief. The internet, meanwhile, was fixated on his look. To the dedicated community of James Bond lovers, there is a specific aesthetic attached to the gentleman spy. Tall, dark and handsome doesn’t even begin to cover it. Visit any forum and you’ll quickly realise that the level of passion that 007 fans have borders on the obsessive; something Scott found out first-hand.

“Apparently, I dye my hair and I have no eyebrows,” he laughs. “As one article comes out, the next one is kind of twisted, and then before you know it, there’s this whole background story about me, which couldn’t be any further from the reality of it. It’s almost like a Chinese whispers.”

Naturally, the topic rolls around. Is it true? Did Scott Rose-Marsh really screen-test for Bond 26? 

“I can’t confirm or deny.”

I change my line of questioning, but I get the same response: “Can’t confirm or deny”. I’m not surprised. There is zero chance Amazon would let their new Bond run wild with the story before they’ve had a chance to announce it themselves. On that line of thinking, however, I ask what Scott would like to see from a new 007—regardless of whether it’s him in the role or not. His answer is surprisingly thoughtful.

“Whether it was to be me or anybody else, I would support whoever it is,” he says. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who they decide on; they’re going to get a lot of stick for it.”

Connection to Bond

As Scott is now well aware, the Bond fandom is like nothing else. The community of 007 lovers is desperate for any information that could point them in the direction of the next film, and they aren’t shy about their preferences. Scott, an avid Bond lover who grew up on the Pierce Brosnan era, has his own.

“My personal preference for James Bond, if I were to choose one, would be someone like Henry Cavill,” he tells me. “When people are associated with big characters, I do think it is more about the project rather than the actor. Unless you know exactly what the storyline is or exactly where they’re going, it is impossible to say .”

Scott clarifies his stance a moment later, stating that whoever Bond is, they should possess a certain aura and presence. Obviously, with Amazon’s thinking long term, the incumbent will need to have time set aside. “I don’t suppose they’d want to do the third Bond movie and someone be 60,” he says. “I’m just being a realist. If you go to MI6 in London, you’re not going to find any secret agents who are 28 years old.”

Beyond Bond

As the conversation ebbs and flows between past experiences and new challenges, I can’t help but think of how strange this situation must be for Scott. After battling it out in tough conditions post the writer’s strike and COVID, the rising actor has seen his fortunes turn in an instant. In just two months, he has gone from a complete unknown to an in-demand leading man, all without ever releasing a new film.

“I’ve had some really lovely messages. It has gone from being one of the favourites to play James Bond, to now all of a sudden, I dye my hair…I just find it fascinating.”

Whatever happens with 007, the ripple effects have already taken hold. Scott reveals that he’s already had European and American casting offers, leading to new and unexpected opportunities in an industry that has traditionally been tough to break into. 

My mind returns to a PR-angle. With success already swelling in light of the unproven reports, it’s hard not to raise some sense of suspicion at the timing. When I quiz him about the theory that this has all been an elaborate PR stunt, Scott laughs.

“To be honest, up until about three months ago, didn’t really know what PR meant. If I had, I would’ve made sure that those images of me never ever circulated.”

Not Who You Know

When we end the call, I sit back and stare at the Zoom tiles, listening to the rain tighten against the window. Two weeks ago, I didn’t know who Scott Rose-Marsh was. Now, I’m even less sure that I do.

He’s undeniably charismatic; not in a Brad Pitt, Tom Hardy sense, but in an earnest, authentic fashion. In some weird way, I want him to succeed. I want to believe that he really is just an actor with big aspirations. I’m not convinced that we’ll see the Southampton actor earn his licence to kill, but there is something to be said for how he’s managed to swing the news in his favour. After all, it wouldn’t be the most ridiculous Bond origin story.

Australian actor George Lazenby famously scored the role by donning a suit, charming a receptionist and slipping into the 007 audition undetected. Of course, that story is nothing more than an urban legend. Lazenby was already an extremely in-demand male model whose deals with international fashion houses put him in the Bond discussion—he merely exaggerated his acting credentials.

But as we’ve learned over the years, legends cling to 007 like cologne, and this headline writes itself: an unknown, improbably inserted into the discourse, somehow ends up the man holding the Walther PPK.

So, is there truth to the rumour that Scott Rose-Marsh screen-tested for Bond 26? Or is this a wild, opportunistic hoax, perfectly tuned to the internet’s appetite for mystery? He won’t say, but I don’t think it matters. The 37-year-old Brit has recognised his moment and taken advantage of the situation. Now, he finds himself in rooms he might not have entered two months ago, and that, in and of itself, is worthy of merit. 

Great actors demand presence and command attention. The hundreds of stories, posts and forum discussions bearing his name would indicate that he has that part figured out. All that is left is the next great role. Make no mistake, this is not the last you’ve heard of Scott Rose-Marsh.

As I close my laptop and reflect on the conversation I just had, still struggling to separate fact from fiction, one comment stands out.

When I asked him how the rumours had changed his career trajectory, Scott smiled and calmly responded: “People say it’s about who you know, but it’s not. It’s about who knows you.”

Image Credits:

• Photographer: Patricia Gorecki
• Stylist: Alex Torun-Shaw
• Clothing: Laird Utility
• Accessories: Bell & Ross, Moscot