James Bond has been around a long time, the first Bond film coming out back in 1962. Just to put that into perspective, that was two years before the civil rights act was passed to end segregation and employment discrimination based on race or sex. Based on that alone, it would make a lot of sense that Sean Connery’s original Bond character would be pretty outdated, and there is no denying the character is known as a womanizer. No Time To Die director Cary Fukunaga now talks about the classic character not holding up present day and how he tried to modernize the new story for Daniel Craig’s last portrayal of James Bond.
In a time where the public is starting to hold people accountable for their actions and the energy they put out into the world, No Time To Die director Cary Fukunaga expressed how not okay the older James Bond film tend to be. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he says that Sean Connery’s original Bond basically assaulted a woman in one of the first films and there is no way that the scene would be acceptable today. Here is what the director says, exactly:
Is it Thunderball or Goldfinger where, like, basically Sean Connery’s character rapes a woman? She’s like ‘No, no, no,’ and he’s like, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ That wouldn’t fly today.
Consent is a necessity, and the definition of the word has been spotty at best in the past. While when Sean Connery’s Bond first appeared on screen fans’ reception of him was of a lady’s man that no woman could resist. The reality, though, is if those same films were watched today with fresh eyes, James Bond would be seen as more than just a little problematic.
It’s already been revealed that Daniel Craig’s character in No Time To Die sees a little bit of a shift thanks to one of the leading ladies. In the same interview, Cary Fukunaga talks about bringing in a female writer, Fleabag writer/star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and how the goal was not to completely change the character of James Bond all at once, but to create a world around him that women are “more than just contrivances” and one that treats women properly. Here it is in his own words:
I think that’s the expectation, a female writing very strong female roles, but that’s something Barbara wanted already. From my very first conversations with [Broccoli], that was a very strong drive. You can’t change Bond overnight into a different person. But you can definitely change the world around him and the way he has to function in that world. It’s a story about a white man as a spy in this world, but you have to be willing to lean in and do the work to make the female characters more than just contrivances.
As it is in the real world, so it is in the world of James Bond: a new era is emerging. While there is certainly work to be done while Daniel Craig makes his final outing as James Bond, the next James Bond will be able to start a kind of clean slate for the historically problematic character. You can check out the changes in the world of James Bond when No Time To Die releases to theaters in just a few weeks on October 8th.
