Daniel Craig Doesn’t Think a Woman Should Be James Bond

| September 21, 2021 |

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Daniel Craig as James Bond in No Time to Die — *Photo: MGM*

Daniel Craig stirred up international headlines back in 2005 when the press was horrified that we were about to become a blonde James Bond. Or "James Blond" as The Daily Postal service (among many others) cracked. But now Craig is making headlines of his ain about who should and shouldn't exist the next 007, as he revealed why despite some social media support to the contrary, he doesn't think the adjacent Bond should be played by a woman.

"The answer to that is very simple," Craig told Radio Times when asked if he thinks a woman should side by side sit behind the Aston Martin's steering wheel. "There should simply exist better parts for women and actors of color. Why should a woman play James Bond when at that place should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a adult female?"

The reply was unexpectedly emphatic, only his strong insistence that Bond should remain male also hints at the larger cultural fault-line the nearly 60-year-old franchise (and fifty-fifty older graphic symbol) is resting on. Since the last time we saw Craig's 007 on-screen, the #MeToo movement and a multifariousness of other social upheavals in industries around the globe, but particularly the amusement manufacture which makes Bail pictures, has acquired a great deal of introspection well-nigh the systemic misogyny and sexism in the work place. And who is more than misogynistic in the workplace than Bond? Simply inquire Moneypenny.

The new Bond movie, No Time to Die , attempts to grapple with that fact and its leading graphic symbol's ain antiquated worldview, when a retired Bond (played for the last time by Craig) learns the new 007 is a Black adult female named Nomi (Lashana Lynch).

Suddenly, a graphic symbol who was described on-screen as a "dinosaur and relic of the Cold War"—dorsum in 1995!—is forced to look at his own place in the globe.

Yet, even actors in that motion picture would appear to disagree with Craig, including Lynch. In an interview with the Guardian final calendar week, Lynch seemed to suggest a woman theoretically could play the next Bond, even while saying that she herself didn't want the role.

"They're actually giving the audience what they desire to requite the audience," Lynch said of No Time to Die 'southward producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Grand. Wilson. "With Bond, information technology could be a human being or adult female. They could exist white, black, Asian, mixed race. They could exist immature or one-time. At the terminate of the solar day, even if a two-year-old was playing Bond, anybody would flock to the cinema to run into what this two-twelvemonth-old'southward gonna do, no?"

This disagreement over whether Bail could be a homo or woman, even between cast members, teases out that producers Broccoli and Wilson accept their work cut out for them when it comes time to update the graphic symbol again for the 21st century with a new Bond. And they'll have to walk that tightrope at a time when even their currently beloved Bail actor'due south opinions volition undoubtedly await out of pace to some onlookers. Then again, one might argue that Bond himself is very much out of step with the mod world, which is past pattern since he more or less remains the mid-20th century masculine wish fulfillment invented by Ian Fleming and then turned into an icon past Sean Connery and producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.

As the decades pass, Bond movies have become more aware of the character'south problematic and sometimes even offensive opinions and prejudices, yet they remain relatively intact. Which is part of the fun of seeing him observe a Black woman has replaced him at MI6.

At the terminate of the solar day though Barbara Broccoli'due south already indicated she doesn't retrieve a adult female should play Bond either.

"Bail is male," Broccoli told the Guardian in a dissimilar 2018 interview. "He's a male character. He was written equally a male, and I remember he'll probably stay as a male." So whether you lot agree or disagree with Craig's personal opinion, it appears to be moot correct now.

Even so, it's worth noting that while Craig and at least 1-half of Bond's primal producing recollect Bond should remain male, they said nothing about 007. Indeed, Lynch'southward casting as Nomi has already shown the moniker of 007 can be passed to a unlike agent. So who's to say she cannot remain 007, and perhaps the side by side several 007 adventures follow the character of Nomi as the new international superspy? As Craig says, permit's take better parts for women and actors of color. They tin introduce a new Bond, only the codename of 007 is taken, thank you.

Imagine the headlines that would generate!