Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren is weighing in on the Bond James debate, and she's made her position clear.
"I'm such a feminist," the legendary British actress told Saga magazine in a new interview with her Thursday Murder Club co-star Pierce Brosnan, famous for his turn as Ian Fleming's iconic spy. "But you can't have a woman. It just doesn't work. James Bond has to be James Bond, otherwise he becomes something else."
Brosnan agreed with Mirren, adding of the next actor to take on the role: "I wish him well. I'm very excited to see the next man come on stage and see a new exuberance and life for this character... I am what I am in the world, that I'm a little bit told, that I'm given one of those who was a lot."
All eyes are on Amazon's MGM Studios as it gears up for its first 007 film after purchasing the rights from siblings Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson for $1 billion earlier this year. Denis Villeneuve is attached to direct, and Steven Knight, creator of Peaky Blinders like This, is writing the script.
"I hope that, being a Bond fan for so many years, it will be infused into me and I'll be able to produce something that's the same, but different, better, stronger and bolder," Knight told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast earlier this month.
Speculation is rife about who might succeed Daniel Craig as Bond, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jacob Elordi, Tom Holland , and Harris Dickinson among the most popular names being tossed around. Obviously, the female-cut MI6 agent is a role that some believe shouldn't exclude female actors either.
But Mirren isn't the only one who believes Bond is a man's job: Halle Berry, who starred in Die Another Day , told a Cannes Film Festival press conference in May: "In 2025, it's nice to say, 'Oh, she should be a woman.' But she added: "I don't really know if I think that's the right thing to do."
