James Bond is larger than life. He's the man women dream of and the man other men want to be like. Bond has the kind of presence that makes heads turn when he walks into a room. He's sophisticated, suave, charming and urbane. He has charisma and panache. His eyes reflect the intelligence and years of experience that have kept him alive in the world's most dangerous occupation.

The man who plays Bond needs to be special, someone who stands out from the crowd of dime-a-dozen, run-of-the mill, flavor-of-the-week pretty boys. "Entertainment Weekly" calls this quality "Bond-ability--the ability to make us forget Sean Connery." Not easy shoes to fill. Of Connery, Pierce Brosnan has said, "…it's his presence. He's so powerful, had so much animal charisma." It will take more than a pretty face to follow that act.

This is a job for a man, not a boy. And Bruce Payne is the man for the job.

Presence isn't learned. You either have it or you don't. It's part bearing, part self-assurance, part self-confidence, part "je ne sais quoi." Evidence that Bruce has it, both on-screen and off, is easy to find. As a young man barely out of his teens, he received an award for "physical presence" from his alma mater, the prestigious RADA. Off-screen Bruce wows interviewers. Said one female writer for "You Magazine," obviously enchanted by him, "When you meet Bruce Payne that award for 'physical presence' comes as no surprise." Another interviewer, who found him both sexy and smart, commented, "A conversation with Bruce Payne is interrupted by meaningful gestures mixed with head-throwing, teeth-flashing hearty laughs, guaranteed to send you reeling."

On-screen, Bruce's immense physical presence is vital and magnetic.In "Kounterfeit", his character Frankie, a powerfully masculine figure, is even described as a man with a “very, very strong presence" by one of the other characters. When Bruce is in a scene, whether as the primary focus or in the background, it's hard to take your eyes off him. In the TV series "La Femme Nikita," he even manages to turn your attention away from gorgeous Peta Wilson, no easy feat. In "Highlander: Endgame," more than one reviewer has commented on how Bruce steals the scene from the two main stars, Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul, whenever he appears.

Presence, says our dictionary, includes not only bearing but self-assurance and self-confidence as well. Bond's self-assurance, as described by Ian Fleming, borders on arrogance. He's good and he knows it. But it is deserved arrogance, if you will, rather than self-appointed narcissism. Bruce oozes such arrogant self-assurance in his villain roles in films such as "Highlander: Endgame," "Warlock III," "Full Eclipse" and "One's Man's Justice." Like Bond, he can also convey arrogance and sexy charm at the same time, as he does in "Smart Money." Or he can convey dignified self-confidence as the Chief Medical Officer in Britannic and cocky self-assurance as the police detective in the TV series "Yellowthread Street."

Presence comes in different flavors. Connery's includes a raw "animal charisma." For Bruce, the major ingredient is intensity, a characteristic he shares with Bond. Bond lives on the edge, rarely more than a step or two away from death. So he lives, loves and fights for his country intensely. No laid back, quiet soft-edged boys need apply.

Intensity is truly Bruce's hallmark. As the racist/fascist thug Flikker in "Absolute Beginners," he is hotly intense, looking as if the veins in his head are going to burst any time in his last angry scene. As the psychopathic terrorist in "Passenger 57," his withering glare is so fiercely intense that you flinch from it just watching the movie. He is coolly intense as Jacob Kell while he so nonchalantly lops off heads in "Endgame." But as Jurgen in the TV series "La Femme Nikita," his intensity, subtle and controlled, is alluring and intoxicating rather than menacing.

Another crucial ingredient in Bruce's great presence is his striking voice--deep, resonant and authoritative, either seductively soothing or sexily menacing as needed, the kind that immediately compels your attention in any scene. In "The Howling VI," for example, you hear his voice before you see him--a silky, sinuous but commanding voice that tells you someone important is about to appear. Someone you had better listen to. Exactly the voice to be convincing when uttering those famous words: "The name's Bond. James Bond." If we were to hear Bruce say that line, we would NOT be thinking about Sean Connery!

In addition to presence, Bond has to have charm. Women don't fall into his arms merely because of his good looks alone. There isn't a film in which Bruce does not exude charm, regardless of the role. Like presence, charm comes in many flavors, and Bruce is master of them all. He is sweetly charming as Dr. Burton in "Silence Like Glass" and suavely charming as Major Baker in "Britannic." But his specialty, not unlike Bond, is (good) bad boy charm. As the bad boy secret operative with a shady past in "La Femme Nikita," he is mysteriously charming. As Nick Eden, the hip detective in "Yellowthread Street," his bad boy charm is mischievous, with a delicious smirk. His charm is sexy but malevolent as Lawrence MacNiece, the crooked computer analyst in "Smart Money," cool and laid back as Frankie, the shady strip joint manager in "Kounterfeit."

It has been said that Bruce is charming even when he is creepy and we agree. Contrast his portrayal of the villainous henchman Damodar with Jeremy Irons' character Profion in "Dungeons & Dragons." Both are evil but Damodar is still strangely charming while Profion is simply creepy. In "Warlock III," Bruce is both menacing and charming, sinister and sexy, with what one writer called a "sexy-scary" look. As Satan in "Switch," he has a debonair and, yes, devilish charm. Even as the mute assassin in "Wonderland," he radiates an eerie but worldly charm.

Bond is not only charming but sophisticated, suave and urbane as well. According to the dictionary, sophistication denotes "appealing to the intellect, not suited to popular tastes, complex." Not a role for glossy pretty boys who are too young to be either complex or urbane. This kind of suaveness requires age and experience. All of Bruce's roles have complexity, as he plays them, but the ones that also portray an air of sophistication include the role of MacNiece in "Smart Money," the haughty General St. Martin Dupre in "The Cisco Kid," and the very British Chief Medical Officer in "Britannic." As Major Baker, Bruce is ever so suave when he kisses Lady Lewis' hand, exchanging clever repartee with a roguish twinkle in his eyes.

As an added bonus for the credibility and suaveness of the character, Bruce is also an expert with accents. Bond is multi-lingual; we need to believe that he fluently speaks the languages that roll off his tongue in the films. Bruce, who has done convincing Cockney, American, French and Russian accents, can persuade us that he didn't get his language lessons from a cheap tourist guidebook, unlike some recent performances by high-profile actors who will go unnamed.

The final ingredients in the recipe for Bond-ability are unpredictability and mystery. There is always an air of mystery surrounding Bond; it's part of the mystique. We know very little about James Bond, the person; his emotional life is rarely revealed. Of his air of mystery, one fan insightfully observed that Bruce always looks like he knows something he's not telling. He conveys this mystery well as the tight-lipped Jurgen in "La Femme Nikita," the tormented Edward de Lapoer in "Necronomicon," and the tortured ex-FBI profiler Marshall Kane, who may or may not be the killer in "Ripper."

As for unpredictability, Bruce states in one of his interviews, "I like to stay one step ahead and not do the predictable." Each role that Bruce has played brought something fresh and new to his repertoire. We can expect him to add a "sparkling edge of unpredictability," a twist to the Bond role that has never been done before.

So, does Bruce have Bond-ability? Sean who?