Barbara Broccoli, the lifelong producer of the James Bond film franchise, put the kibosh on feminist fantasies that a woman would ever play the role of the iconic British intelligence office in a rare interview with Variety.
“He can be of any color, but he is male,” Broccoli said. “I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that.”
Although bosses in Bond-world from Rachel Weisz, the wife of current Bond actor Daniel Craig, to the female producer herself have repeatedly pushed back on the proposal, the idea has never truly died, with Bond hopefuls attempting to outwoke each other by proposing female Bonds and transgender Bonds. Not only, as Weisz argued, do women deserve their own stories, but more importantly, a female James Bond just wouldn’t be that interesting.
Sure, the intrigue of Bond’s tactical prowess could be portrayed by either gender just fine, but half of the Bond franchise is oriented around a rotating cast of preternaturally gorgeous actresses known as the legendary Bond Girl. A British Secret Service agent is a government employee. A British Secret Service agent who routinely bags the most attractive women on the planet is a legend.
Now just consider a film featuring Jane Bond winning over a series of handsome men. That’s hardly impressive — men tend to be more easily beguiled in such matters. Maybe it is crass to point it out, but it’s also human nature.
Women do deserve their own stories, and box office and critical achievements such as Atomic Blonde and Wonder Woman prove that the people love watching hot women take the lead in action flicks. To stick them in a role that obviously makes no sense as female is to do them a disservice.
Casting Bond as a black man makes zero difference to his appeal. An Idris Elba- or Michael B. Jordan-led Bond would be just macho and impressive as Craig or his predecessors. But watching bombshells such as Charlize Theron or Gal Gadot court various gentlemen as they save the world would be all fine and good entertainment, but it wouldn’t exactly be impressive.
Let’s have a black Bond for sure, but please, put these dreams of a lady Bond to bed.
