Movies Why Jeffrey Wright was so excited to play Felix Leiter alongside James Bond in Casino Royale By Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen. EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 8, 2018 06:04PM EDT Watch the full episode of Couch Surfing streaming now on PeopleTV.com, or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite device. When first offered the chance to potentially be in a James Bond film, Jeffrey Wright was incredibly excited. “I got a call from my agent one day and he said, ‘Jeffrey, the Bond people want you to be in this next movie. They’re going to remake the franchise and they want you to play this CIA guy or something, I’ll send you the script,'” he tells Lola Ogunnaike, host of PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing. “And I’m like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, some CIA guy. You mean Felix Leiter?’ I’m like what?!” RELATED: Jeffrey Wright on the lasting relevance of Angels in America Wright explains his excitement came from a longtime love of Jack Lord, the original actor to portray Felix Leiter in Dr. No. “For me outside of Muhammad Ali and Miles Davis, Jack Lord, the Felix Leiter I knew, was one of the baddest motherf—kers in the whole space. Jack Lord was it,” says Wright. Jay Maidment/Columbia Needless to say, he was more than happy to sign onto the role once it was offered. Watch the clip above for more.