The 2025 TV schedule is proof of concept that class-act Oscar winner Helen Mirren can easily hold her own as a bonafide TV star, thanks to captivating roles on Yellowstone’s prequel 1923 and the gangster drama MobLand (both streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). She co-stars in the latter with fellow movie-and-TV fixture Pierce Brosnan, giving viewers an idea of what they’d have looked like as James Bond and M, though Mirren’s comments about the spy character’s perceived sexism squashed those ideals.
And if anyone thinks Brosnan was going to be the one to stand up and oppose his co-star by going to bat for the Ian Fleming creation, think again. Let’s take a closer look at what was said.
Helen Mirren Calls Out James Bond's Sexism
While on the press tour for MobLand, Helen Mirren spoke with The Standard about working with Pierce Brosnan again 45 years after they both co-starred in the 1980 gangster flick The Long Good Friday. The topic of Bond arose, in particular the franchise's shift in ownership to Amazon MGM, where Amy Pascal and David Heyman are now in charge as the company's Jennifer Salke all but made her exit. And The Queen star didn't exactly try to fake her fandom. As she put it:
The whole series of James Bond, it was not my thing. It really wasn’t. I never liked James Bond. I never liked the way women were in James Bond.
To be sure, the actress shared her immense respect and appreciation for Pierce Brosnan himself, and she also gave a kind shout out to Daniel Craig, saying they're both very lovely and gracious people. But such compliments don't extend towards the shared character they played. As she put it:
The whole concept of James Bond is drenched and born out of profound sexism. Women have always been a major and incredibly important part of the Secret Service, they always have been. And very brave. If you hear about what women did in the French Resistance, they’re amazingly, unbelievably courageous. So I would tell real stories about extraordinary women who've worked in that world.
Notably, Helen Mirren is related to a former Bond Girl, as she's cousins with Goldfinger co-star Tania Mallet, who portrayed Tilly Masterson. It's unclear if Mallet's experiences on the film had anything to do with Mirren's current opinions, but I can imagine that the dozens of Bond films that followed Goldfinger probably also played a part.
Pierce Brosnan Reacts To The James Bond Comments
Having portrayed the smooth-talking, martini-drinking spy mastermind across four different James Bond movies in the '90s and early '00s, Pierce Brosnan wouldn't be blamed if he felt defensive about the iconic character being taken down a peg for his womanizing. However, the actor didn't seem to be rebuffed in the slightest when People asked for his take on her comments. He championed her in saying:
She let them have it.
I mean, who can blame him? I sure as hell wouldn't want to publicly disagree with Helen Mirren, even if she was just saying she thinks Bond should have had his martinis stirred instead of shaken. I'd just want to provide a box full of stirrers.
Still, Brosnan didn't go on record saying he was fully aligned with his MobLand co-star's feelings, pointing out that the super-spy's on-screen behavior regarding women is, if nothing else, a sign of faithful for the source material. He continued, saying:
Yes, there's a certain agreement there. But there's a certain world and room to move within the proscenium arch of what [Bond creator and author] Ian Fleming put down. So there's always going to be conflict.
As he said, though, there's room to move around beneath that fictionalized umbrella, so perhaps the future of James Bond media will see the sharp-dressed hero become more of a softer-edged and more compassionate ladies man, as opposed to adhering squarely to his boozing and schmoozing ways.
We'll have to wait and see how that plays out, though, . Meanwhile, be sure to catch both Mirren and Brosnan on MobLand, which fans had immediate reactions to, when new episodes hit Paramount+ every Sunday.
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