Playing the role of a Bond girl is no easy task but with Skyfall, the newest film in the series, Naomie Harris and Bérénice Marlohe step up to the plate and hit a home run. Each actress excels in their respective roles, crafting two memorable characters that will certainly go down in Bond history.
At the film’s recent LA press day, Harris and Marlohe entertained journalists with a candid twenty minute chat on what it’s like to be in a James Bond film and all the challenges and excitement that goes along with it.
Check it out below.
We Got This Covered: What did the notion of Bond girl mean to you before you got the job and what did it come to mean to you in playing the role?
Naomie Harris: For me, I had very set ideas of what it meant about being sexy and alluring and beautiful. That for me felt quite constraining because I usually don’t play roles like that. I felt very confined and restricted by all those set ideas. But then a friend of mine said “just forget about all of that and imagine you’re part of a low budget movie and you can do whatever you want with the role. Just make it your own.” And that ultimately for me is how I come to see Bond girls. I think that we’re just women who are in Bond movies and women now who are in Bond movies can be anything, so you’re totally free to create.
We Got This Covered: Historically, Bond’s attitude towards women has been something less than enlightened, does that play into your thought at all? Or did they make it clear to you that this is a new generation of Bond women.
Naomie Harris: Well they told me that they wanted me to create a modern woman that other women could respect and admire. They wanted it to be new and different and that’s why I was so excited.
We Got This Covered: Bérénice, the scene with the shotglass on your head was so harrowing, what was it like shooting that with Javier [Bardem] and Daniel [Craig]?
Bérénice Marlohe: It was very exciting as an actress because I got to act with two of the most talented actors out there. It was a fantastic opportunity. As a human being though it was very intense and wonderful. I got to connect with a lot of areas from my past, it gave me a lot of discovery as a human being. It was a very moving scene for me to act in.
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