Lately, there’s been a lot of buzz around the idea that Idris Elba should be the next actor to play James Bond, once Daniel Craig finally finishes up his run with the iconic role. But we could’ve had a black James Bond 30 years ago. If Michael Jackson had gotten his way, that might have been him, not Timothy Dalton, sliding down that mountain on a cello in The Living Daylights.

As Metro reports, the super-agent Michael Ovitz tells a story about Michael Jackson lobbying to become the next Bond in his new memoir Who Is Michael Ovitz? In the book, Ovitz talked about a meeting that he and business partner Ron Meyer had with Jackson in the ’80s. Apparently, Ovitz and Ron Meyer talked to Jackson about how he wanted to be “the star of an action movie,” and during the meeting, Jackson managed to drop his hat into a bowl of guacamole.

This raises some questions: How big was this bowl? What kind of hat was MJ wearing? Is it remotely plausible that a hat could fall into guac? But apparently, Ovitz and Meyer were trying not to laugh as a blob of guacamole was sliding down Jackson’s hat:

Then the blob fell off, and Ron totally lost it. I cracked up, too, and Michael stalked out. I found him and explained for 15 minutes that we hadn’t been laughing at him… Finally, Michael’s face cleared. “OK, Ovitz. OK,” he said. “But I want to play James Bond.” I am proud to report I didn’t laugh, this time.

Ovitz claims that he convinced Jackson that the Bond role wasn’t for him, telling Jackson that he was “thinly built, you’re too sensitive, you won’t be credible as a brutal block of stone.” But this represents a real missed opportunity. Jackson couldn’t have played Bond, obviously. But a Jackie Chan-style dance-fight movie with Michael Jackson would have been amazing, and these guys are idiots for paying attention to some guacamole instead of thinking of that.