Callum Turner is an expert at sidestepping questions he doesn’t want to answer. The 35-year-old model-turned-actor (36 if you’re reading this tomorrow—his birthday is February 15) has honed that skill evading queries about his relationship with singer Dua Lipa, whom he dated for a year and a half before the couple confirmed their engagement in 2025. It’s a level of stealth worthy of James Bond, who, some say, Turner is all but certain to soon play.
But those “some” don’t include Callum Turner, based on a Saturday media event. The London-born thespian who’s worked steadily since he entered the profession at age 20, spent Valentine’s Day at the Berlin Film Festival. He was there to promote Rosebush Pruning, Karim Aïnouz’s star-studded satire about a wealthy (and yet, so so sad) family picking at each other as they languish in a lavish Catalonian villa.
It was the film’s world premiere, but at a press conference for the movie, one of the earliest questions passed over stars Pamela Anderson, Tracy Letts, Jamie Bell, and Lukas Gage, and landed squarely on Turner’s sturdy shoulders.
The presser had just kicked off when a journalist said they wanted to address “the elephant in the room,” and asked about the chatter surrounding Turner’s rumored role in Dune director Denis Villeneuve‘s upcoming Bond film, the first under the franchise’s new owner, Amazon (yes, that Amazon) MGM Studios.
Dua Lipa and Callum Turner pose on the red carpet for Rosebush Pruning
RALF HIRSCHBERGER/Getty Images
“It’s very early for that question,” Turner responded as he swiveled back-and-forth in his seat. “I’m not going to comment on it, thank you.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning Letts interrupted at that point to say “I’m sorry, I’m the next James Bond.”
“Tracy, I thought you weren’t going to say anything,” Turner responded, to laughter from the crowd. (The 60-year-old American was clearly joking, but odder ideas have certainly been proposed!)
