Acclaimed British actress Helen Mirren has criticised the James Bond franchise for the way in which it portrays women, saying “the whole concept” of the movies is “drenched and born out of profound sexism”.
Mirren, who is starring in the new Paramount+ crime thriller series MobLand alongside former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, told The Standard that “the whole series of James Bond, it’s not my thing”.
“I never liked James Bond. I never liked the way women were in James Bond,” she said, adding that she doesn’t want to see a woman portray the fictional spy.
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“I would tell real stories about extraordinary women who’ve worked in that world,” she continued, offering the example of the “amazingly, unbelievably courageous” women who were part of the French Resistance.
For years, the franchise has faced criticism for its portrayal of women, relegating them in early movies to “Bond girls”, celebrated only for their sex appeal.
More recently, and especially since the #MeToo movement, Bond has attempted to depict women in a different light.
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Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who created Fleabag and Killing Eve, was brought in to work on the script of the 2021 movie No Time to Die, and according to producer Barbara Broccoli, inject some British humour.
Three supporting female characters in that film were all given more to do than traditional Bond girls: Lashana Lynch played another agent, Nomi, who took over the famous 007 code name; Ana de Armas played a newly minted CIA agent, Paloma; while Léa Seydoux returned as French psychiatrist and Bond love interest Madeleine Swann, in an arc not seen in the films before.
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Discussions about the future of the franchise, which is steeped in 1950s and 1960s British nostalgia, were thrust back into the spotlight in February when Amazon MGM Studios announced it was taking creative control of it.
Mirren was quick to clarify that she was still a “massive fan” of some of the actors who have played Bond.
“I’m a huge fan of Pierce Brosnan, I mean massive fan,” she said.
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“I mean, oh my god. Obviously, he’s gorgeous and everything, and I think he’s fabulous in MobLand, but he also happens to be one of the nicest people you’ll ever have the pleasure to work with.
“And indeed Daniel Craig, who I’ve met and know a little bit. Again, a very lovely, gracious person.”
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