Daniel Craig is likely a household name across the world today. Though Craig has starred in other movies throughout his career, his most well-known role is, of course, playing special agent James Bond.
Since the movies had begun filming in the 60s, the actors playing the role of “007” have gone on to achieve great fame and acclaim. Before Craig, Pierce Brosnan held the role of “James Bond.” It is a prestigious role indeed, and Craig has done the role great justice as well.
Craig has always lived a relatively private life, and unlike other A-list celebrities, does not like being in the spotlight after he is done filming. However, he has taken opportunities previously to speak out about his love for his family as well as his wife. Craig has been married to actress Rachel Weisz since 2011 with whom he shares a daughter. Craig also has a daughter from his previous relationship with Fiona Loudon.
Both he and Weisz kept their romance and marriage under wraps for quite a long time. Though he has kept his life and thoughts private for a long time, he does share them once in a while in different interviews.
Recently, he opened up about how he does not believe that a woman should be playing the role of James Bond in the future. Since Craig will no longer be continuing his role as the current Bond, there have been multiple reports that a woman may take over the role instead of a man; but this is not something Craig believes should happen.
Craig’s most recent Bond movie, “No Time To Die,” is set to be released on September 30, 2021, after being postponed multiple times due to the coronavirus pandemic. This will be his fifth and final Bond movie according to GQ. While filming the movie, there was a lot of chaos according to Craig, such as the first director, Danny Boyle, quitting, Craig getting injured, and an explosion on the set among other challenges.
However, as Craig completed his filming and took his final bow of being James Bond, he certainly felt emotional about leaving this chapter of his life behind. When he had to make a speech after his final scene, Craig recalled, “I had a whole thing kind of put together in my head that I wanted to say. I couldn’t get it out.”
Now that Craig has left behind his role as James Bond, there is a lot of speculation as to who will take over the role. While some people believed that it was finally time for a woman to become Bond, this has not been a popular belief. For his part, Craig said in an interview with Radio Times that women “deserve their own parts that are just as good.”
He added, “There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color.” He went on to ask, “Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?” This seems to be a good question to ask when it comes to casting the next actor as Bond.
The idea that a woman should take over the role of James Bond has been gaining traction over the last few months, especially in the light of the #MeToo movement that brought forward past Bond actors who addressed the sexism they faced on the set. Among those who spoke out were “Die Another Day” actress Halle Berry as well as producer Barbara Broccoli according to ELLE.
In fact, Pierce Brosnan himself showed his support for a female Bond in 2019, saying, “I think we’ve watched the guys do it for the last 40 years,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Get out of the way, guys, and put a woman up there. I think it would be exhilarating, it would be exciting.”
Moreover, British actor Lashana Lynch will take over Bond’s 007 status in the new movie, which had also resulted in speculation that the next Bond might be a woman.
Speaking to the Guardian, Lynch said, ‘With Bond, it could be a man or woman. They could be white, black, Asian, mixed race. They could be young or old. At the end of the day, even if a two-year-old was playing Bond, everyone would flock to the cinema to see what this two-year-old’s gonna do, no?’
However, Broccoli had made her views clear: “I always feel that Bond is a male character, that is just a fact. We have to make movies about women and women’s stories but we have to create female characters and not just for a gimmick turn a male character into a woman,” she said in 2019 during an interview on “Good Morning Britain” according to Harper’s Bazaar. This goes to show that there likely won’t be a female James Bond in the future.
Do you think the role of James Bond should be played by a woman? Tell us your thoughts, and be sure to ask others what they think about it as well.
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