Phoebe Waller-Bridge has said that she would not be in favour of a female James Bond.
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The Fleabag creator, who is credited as part of the No Time To Die writing team, was asked during tonight’s (September 28) premiere of the latest Bond film whether a female actor could take over as 007 from Daniel Craig.
“I think Bond is James Bond,” she responded. “We just need to cook up someone to rival him.”
When pressed on whether she could be the one to create such a character, Waller-Bridge replied: “I have to be careful what I say.”
The actor and writer worked alongside Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and director Cary Joji Fukunaga on the 25th instalment in the iconic spy franchise, which has been delayed three times due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“They asked me to come on board to add to the pot they were already working on,” Waller-Bridge explained of her role this evening, revealing that some of her ideas made the final cut.
“There was already a script, they had some things they wanted to go in a different direction with, they wanted the character work to be even deeper and look into more nuance in the characters.”
She continued: “It was really an overall look at the whole script with them, to be able to work with Cary, who was also writing on it while he was in deeper prep with other things.
“It was to support them as much as come up with new stuff and throw it at them and see if they liked it. That was a wonderful experience because it was a collaboration but it wasn’t fully my vision.
“So I could say, ‘Does this work for you? Does this work for you?’ And I’m really, really excited to see that some of it did work for them and it’s on the screen.”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s comments echo those of departing lead star Daniel Craig, who recently said that “there should simply be better parts for women and actors of colour”.
“Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?” he added.
He also explained that Waller-Bridge had been hired as a way to “spice up” No Time To Die, but specified she “wasn’t about to take him in a different direction” as a longtime fan of the franchise.
No Time To Die arrives in cinemas this Thursday (September 30).
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