Few characters in book or film hold as familiar a place in British culture as James Bond. He is so iconic that the Bond franchise has become inseparable from the real world. The fact that he performed a sketch in which he escorted the Queen to the 2012 Olympic Games, only highlights this fact. Emilia Clarke has recently said she would like to take up the 007 mantle and become the first female Bond but, personally, I feel having a woman as James Bond would be very weird. Bond has become an icon for several reasons and Clarke, or nearly any woman as Bond, would undermine this status.
Credit: Sony Pictures
Firstly, Bond epitomises masculinity. Women fawn over him and every man wants to be him. Bond’s love of drinking, women, fighting, gambling, cars and guns are some of his defining characteristics. Although SPECTRE wasn’t as well received as Skyfall, by going back to a more traditional Bond format, it easily showed what the audience expect from Bond. We expect ridiculous action set pieces, car chases, explicit seduction and sex scenes, but also we expect moments like Bond leaping from a train being destroyed, only to straighten his tie straight after. This is quintessential Bond, and it’s what makes him such an icon: he is always the coolest, the most suave, always ready to do what’s necessary to save the world but usually with a woman hanging from his arms. This is not to say that the franchise hasn’t had strong female characters, with Judi Dench’s ‘M’ and Olga Kurylenko’s ‘Camille’ being capable females in their own right, but the focus has always been on an action hero who encompasses these ‘masculine’ traits.
Physicality is another reason. Scarlett Johansson has done a commendable job in advancing the allure of a brutal and athletic female action star, but her main role as Black Widow in the MCU exists in a universe full of super powered people and highly trained government agents. Bond is exceptionally good in hand-to-hand combat, with Daniel Craig ushering in a new raw physicality. Being an exceptional fighter is not gender-specific and in movies we always have to suspend rational thought. However, seeing someone like Emilia Clarke, who is 5’2 and 52kg, going up against villains like ‘Jaws’ would seem silly and unbelievable – unless we get a backstory on why this female Bond is such an exceptional fighter. We have only had small glimpses at his backstory and Bond is largely an enigma. He is a good spy because…he is, and we don’t need to know why or how. The more you start changing the spine of the franchise, the further away it is from a Bond film.
Casting a woman would also be a disservice to Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming. Fleming based the character partly on his own lifestyle including his love of gambling, smoking and his affairs with various women throughout his life. Unlike many popular literary-to-film characters, nearly everything in Bond’s universe was influenced by Fleming’s own life experience. The character of Bond is an amalgamation of many of the British commandos that served in 30 Assault unit and T-force – two groups he had a hand in directing. Furthermore, most of the series’ characters are references to people or events in his life. Fleming’s Bond is clearly respecting the heroes who inspired him, combined with his own traits, and completely changing 007’s gender further distances the film series from the original creator’s legacy.
The recent reception to the new, all-female, Ghostbusters may be a good indicator of how a female Bond would be received. I don’t think the new Ghostbusters looks bad because it has women at it’s heart – the CGI looks terrible and the jokes fell flat, but there is an element of ‘why?’ Why would they have to touch such a beloved franchise just to make a new one where the male leads have been changed to female? It is just unnecessary, and the effort could be focused on establishing new franchises with female leads. Nowadays, people are usually challenged for criticising something like the new Ghostbusters but sometimes changing the gender of the characters changes the dynamic, humour or substance of a series. I would much rather see an original action comedy starring the cast of the female Ghostbusters or a new spy movie starring Emilia Clarke, than to see the legacy and iconography of two beloved franchises be undermined – especially in Bond’s case.
While I don’t believe Bond should be a woman, I could see him being a different race – especially with the buzz around Idris Elba potentially being up for the role. But still, I think they have to be careful here. The last two Bond films have had a degree of continuity, thanks to the presence of Judi Dench’s ‘M’. If Elba were to be the next ‘James Bond’, they would probably have to scrap Ralph Fiennes and the supporting MI6 cast or simply make Elba ‘007’, not Bond. It is far-fetched to believe no-one would notice Bond’s skin colour changing. Bond films have had their highs and lows but something that has always remained is his character traits and style, casting a woman would completely change parts of his character and this would definitely, in my view, threaten to undermine his iconic status in Britain.
To see Sam Mendes discuss Daniel Craig’s last Bond film, SPECTRE, watch the video below.
11 Comments
This was an awful article. It’s more a list of reasons why Bond is outmoded rather than an argument for the preservation of the character. You outlined all of the reasons why you’re wrong perfectly: Bond is a male power fantasy, and he encourages all the sorts of things anyone with a sense of morality or social conscience should oppose.
Oh, and yes, let’s not upset Ian Fleming, the guy who said Idris Elba was too ‘street’ to play Bond. Wouldn’t want to hurt a racist’s feelings. Or the neck-bearded MRA’s pounding away at their keyboards, terrified of anything with a vagina creeping into their narrow escapisms.
Aside from just being plain wrong, this was terribly written; constant spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
Ha! Thanks for the typical SJW response! And I will tell you why I don’t take you seriously, Ian Fleming DIED in 1964- don’t really know how he said anything about Idris Elba!? I mean it didn’t really like Sean Connery being a Scottish Bond but since he died over 50 years ago not sure how he feels about Idris Elba. An it’s the job of the editor to pick up on mistakes, something I’m sure you will never get to be.
Ah, that’s my bad.
‘SJW’- exactly what I was expecting. Because it’s so awful to care about social issues. Those three letters aren’t the mic-drop you think they are, in the real world away from comment threads, ignorance doesn’t float.
And it’s also the job of the writer if, you know, they care at all about what they’re putting out. Which you clearly don’t.
Ian Fleming’s been dead since 1964. It was Anthony Horowitz – a subsequent writer of Bond novels – who said that Idris Elba was ‘too street’ to play Bond.
Totally my bad- redacted…
Scott, I was involved in editing this article so if you have a problem with the grammar or spelling, please do let me know.
I think I just did by proxy. Maybe have a read through, something you clearly didn’t do- you’ll see what I mean.
You have way too much to say about other people’s writing/roles. Concentrate on your own gig pal, that way, everyone can get along with doing what they enjoy without having you being a bit of a knob in their comments section. This article was perfectly fine and also AN OPINION PIECE. That’s all, cheers.
I enjoyed the article, especially the idea of not redoing old male led franchises to try and cover it in some kind of feminist equality glaze; if we want equality, we shouldn’t just ‘equal’ what has come previously, we should be creating new things.
For example, I think Salt was originally written for a male lead, but then Angelina Jolie was cast and she made it her own. Maybe this should become a thing with action movies… make the scripts more flexible so that just the best actor for the job gets to take it, male or female.
Not too fussed about Bond myself to be honest, but I can understand both arguments. However, all the traits and characteristics of the Bond you describe could be used to describe a woman… she can like guns and cars, she could enjoy drinking, fighting, gambling, and men (or women) could fawn over her… Physicality I understand could be an issue but that is the case for either gender, you would need to choose an appropriate actor who is believable and strong enough to perform the kind of stunts Bond performs.
Overall however, nice article, despite my lack of knowledge of Bond.
Yeah I totally agree. We shouldn’t just remake male franchise to show how progressive we are as a society and if we want change we have to start developing female led films. I also think a lot of movies could switch up their lead to cater for both and things like the Marvel movies could easily change some of their characters gender.
I just feel Bond is a special case, and I agree fighting and gambling are not only acts of men, I wrote ‘masculine’ as a quotation, because although women can certainly do these things it still is a male stereotype, that plays into the idea that Bond is a classic ‘man’s man’, and also these traits are an extension of Fleming himself. I agree it’s not the strongest argument to say Bond should remain a man because he’s violent, hard drinking and loves cars but becuase of his auto-biographical and biographical origins I think it’s important.
Fair, thanks for clarifying.