'Why should a woman play James Bond?': Daniel Craig makes his position clear

‘Why should a woman play James Bond?’: Daniel Craig makes his position clear on famous protagonist

Craig

“Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?” These are the latest comments made by outgoing James Bond star, Daniel Craig who will be handing over the keys to his Aston Martin and making his last appearance in the latest 007 movie, “No Time to Die,” which is set to be released in the US on October 8.  

The British actor recently spoke to Radio Times, responding to growing chatter that the next Bond should be played by a woman. 

“The answer to that is very simple,” Craig said. “There should simply be better parts for women and actors of colour.” 

Barbara Broccoli, the Bond franchises’ producer, told The Guardian in 2018 that as a male character, “…he was written as a male and I think he’ll probably stay as a male.” 

“And that’s fine,” Broccoli added. “We don’t have to turn male characters into women. Let’s just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.”

Broccoli has pursued a female-led action franchise spinoff with Helle Berry’s 2002 “Die Another Day” character Jinx, but was denied funded by MGM. 

Lashana Lynch, who co-stars in “No Time to Die”, told The Guardian earlier this month that Bond “could be a man or woman” or “white, black, Asian, mixed race.”

“They could be young or old,” she remarked. “At the end of the day, even if a two-year-old was playing Bond, everyone would flock to the cinema to see what this two-year-old’s gonna do, no?”

Lynch, a 33-year old British actress known for her role as fighter pilot Maria Rambeau in 2019’s “Captain Marvel” makes history as the first Black female 007.

In “No Time to Die”, Bond franchise’s twenty-fifth feature, Lynch plays Nomi, a female secret agent who inherits the 007 title while Bond is in exile

Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge has also come on board (behind the screen), working on the scripting process.

“She’s got devilish humour,” Craig said about Waller-Bridge in his interview with Radio Times. “Her influence permeates a lot of this film. She walked that fantastic line of keeping it as a thriller and being very funny. But Phoebe didn’t come in to change Bond. She came in to spice it up for sure, but she’s a Bond fan – she wasn’t about to take him in a different direction.”

Craig has played the titular role, based on Ian Fleming’s novels, for a consecutive five films, beginning in 2006 with ‘Casino Royale’. 

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