007 Travelers interview: Ola Rapace, Actor “Skyfall”

Who: Ola Rapace, Actor (Patrice in “Skyfall“, 2012)

When: 8th of October 2025

007 Travelers met Ola Rapace at SKY Bar & Terrace of Original Sokos Hotel Vaasa

Sonny Ola Rapace Jawo, né Pär Ola Norell; born 3 December 1971) is a Swedish actor best known for playing Patrice in the 2012 James Bond film “Skyfall“.

How did you end up in “Skyfall“ and how many screen tests did you do before signing to the role of Patrice? And Patrice doesn’t have any lines in the movie. Did you know beforehand that you don’t have a speaking part or was there something left on the cutting floor?

“The thing was that when the script was written Sam Mendes was on not on the show, they didn’t have the director, so the screenwriters thought “this has to be a stunt guy doing this part, so don’t give him any lines, cause he’s just going to fight and ride motorcycles and crash cars and stuff”, so there were no lines in that part, but then Sam Mendes was hired for the job to direct it and he said that “I need an actor to the part” and the stunt crew said, Gary Powell, best stunt coordinator in the world, coordinating all the stunts, said “no we can’t have an actor”. You need to find an actor who is able to fight on the train, ride the bikes, ride the cars and Sam Mendes said: “I don’t give a shit, I need an actor.”, so he actually started auditioning thousands of actors all over Europe and I just went to screen testing in Stockholm with 200 other guys. That was only Stockholm. Then, you know, a month later I got this call from the casting director in London and she said that “Sam wants you to do the part, but the stunt coordinator doesn’t think you are up to it, so would it be ok if you go to London and rehearse with them two weeks.”. Two weeks…, yeah, “and then, you know, we decide if you make it or not.” I said ok, and went to London and first week was just all fighting, you know, fighting and choreography, fight training, sparring and then after one week they said you can do the fighting, lets try motorcycles, and next week was just bikes and cars and shooting and stuff, then after two weeks on Friday Gary Powell, the stunt coordinator, he went up to me and said: “Boss wants you to do it and I think you could do it.” And I got the part. But I had to go to London and practice for weeks with the stunts to prove myself.

Some scenes were filmed in Shanghai, China, but you never went there…

“Nobody went there. MGM got shut out of China. China had some problems with the States, so no film companies could go in to China, so they built Shanghai to Pinewood, it was crazy, when you went there, they had built skyscrapers, it was like 100 feet high, it was crazy.

Sadly, one of the stunt guys, my character when I was suppose to drop to my death, the final thing I have, that was stunt guy called Damien, and he was this elite athlete, gymnast, like an olympic champion, and he had to do this, it was a Friday night and it was last thing to do, he had to drop like 25 meters down to this air cushion and the director said we could do this now, “Come on Damien, are you ready. Ok, action.” Drop, and he landed a little bit, you know, twisted in this mattress and I was up there 25 meters above and I could hear his knee crack and his career was fucked, he is never gonna work like a stunt guy again. He was just shattered. But, you know, we got pictures the scene was perfect and everything was good so “have a nice weekend. See you at the hospital maybe”. Really sad, but…

Who is your favorite Bond actor?

“I have to say Mads Mikkelsen in “Casino Royale“. I think he did really good job in that one. My favorite Bond is Daniel Craig. He is my mate.”

How was it like working with Daniel Craig?

“It was great. You know, he is so down to earth. Working class kid from Liverpool. He talked about football and everything else, but you know, film. He was so nice to me and in my first day when I went back to London and got this trailer and the trailer was bigger than my apartment in Stockholm and I was in my trailer all by myself and I heard this knock on the door. And that was Daniel with the bottle of wine. He said “welcome to the set, mate”. Yeah, he was so nice to me. A friend. We worked so long together, so we became friends. He is so down to earth. He is so kind and generous. A really good guy.”

What is your favorite Bond movie?

“For me it is “Casino Royale“. The first Bond movie that was more like “noir”, a little darker, classy, more for real, you know what I mean. I like that. For me, that was when I started to take Bond seriously, you know what I mean, and I think that the transition needed to happen, because if the franchise would have stayed in, you know the transition of Bond lost, you know what I mean, they would have lost the audience. When they shifted it to more darker, gritty Bond, then people like me started to “oh, this is cool”. And I was concerned, it was a good change.

You have made many movies around the world. What is your favorite place where you have visited?

“I’m gonna be boring now and gonna say Paris, because I’ve been, as you said, I’ve been travelling the whole world almost and the place I always want to go back to is Paris. You know, I have been like in Turkey, I spend a couple of nights the old original Kempinski and the luxury there, it was so crazy and I had the Bosporus outside and everything was crazy, luxury, you know what I mean, but I still want to back to Paris. Then I have to say, whenever I go back to Paris, I think, this is my home. This is where I can relax and I understand people, I like to speak French. I never wanna leave Paris, I always wanna go back to Paris and even film making there is cool. The filming industry in Paris is so generous and so open minded and the actors are so good that you never wanna leave.

How often do you visit in Paris?

Right now, a couple of times a year, but I used to live there for like seven years, so I still would wanna live there, but right now I can’t afford it (to live there).”

What is the place you have not been, but would like to visit?

“Tokyo. That’s the only place I have always like to visit, but I have never been able to visit. Japan, I have never been to Japan and Tokyo, I would really want to go to Tokyo.”

Ola is a good interviewee, he maintains eye contact with the interviewer, smiles warmly and is really present. It was a real pleasure to interview him. Thank you Ola, and thank you Fredrik Nygård for making this private interview possible.

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