https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/f...rmas_cover.jpg
Bond Women: How Rising Stars Lashana Lynch and Ana de Armas Are Helping Modernize 007
by Rebecca Ford November 06, 2019, 5:00am PST
In London with the 'No Time to Die' actresses, part of The Hollywood Reporter's Next Gen Talent list, as they open up about bringing James Bond into the #MeToo age: "There is an evolution."
When Ana de Armas first arrived at London’s Pinewood Studios to shoot No Time to Die, the 25th installment in the James Bond franchise, she was a bit starstruck — though not when introduced to lead Daniel Craig. It happened as she was walking into a meeting with director Cary Joji Fukunaga, who was chatting with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the British creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve who’d been hired to bring a fresh female perspective (and some humor) to the film’s script.
"I saw Phoebe, and I just blushed — I got red like a tomato," says de Armas, 31. "I was like, 'Oh my God, can I hug you? I want to be your friend.' " De Armas' co-star, Lashana Lynch, had a similar reaction when she learned of Waller-Bridge's involvement. "I very literally squealed when I first heard her name," says Lynch, 31. "I thought, 'Oh my gosh, British girl just like me. She's going to know how to actually take care of women onscreen.' "
Never has that been so critical for a Bond film. When it's released April 10, the $250 million No Time to Die will be the first entry in the series to land in a #MeToo and Time's Up world. And while the $7 billion franchise may forever be best known for its womanizing namesake agent, director Fukunaga (True Detective, Beasts of No Nation) and producer Barbara Broccoli have worked hard with both Lynch and de Armas to create a new type of female Bond character who is much more fully realized than the "Bond girls" of films past.
"It's pretty obvious that there is an evolution in the fact that Lashana is one of the main characters in the film and wears the pants — literally. I wear the gown. She wears the pants," says de Armas, curled up in a chair in the lobby of London's Charlotte Street Hotel.
She and Lynch, chatting about their career trajectories for THR's annual Next Gen issue, are both in the midst of breakout years. In addition to Bond, de Armas plays a lead in Rian Johnson's Knives Out (Nov. 27) and will portray Marilyn Monroe in Netflix's Blonde, arriving in 2020. Lynch co-starred in March's blockbuster Captain Marvel and will soon begin shooting FX's anticipated comic book adaptation of Y: The Last Man.
Now they are one week away from wrapping what has been an epic six-month Bond shoot, and both are exhausted. De Armas pours two packets of sugar into her coffee. "I use a lot of sugar," says the Cuban-Spanish actress apologetically as she cracks open still another packet. "I usually put condensed milk in it — we call it café bon bon."
Lynch, who plays a British agent in the film, is presently at her West London home sleeping after shooting late into the night, but during an interview at the Ace Hotel the next day, her voice cracks from strain and she orders a hot tea. "Luckily, we don't have any speaking scenes next week, so I don't have to use it," she says.
These two rising stars don't have much in common when it comes their paths to Bond. One was born in Cuba. The other in London to Jamaican parents. One cut her teeth on Spanish TV, the other on the stage. But both have roots tied to this latest Bond outing, which is set in Cuba and Jamaica. And through their characters, they're helping redefine what it means to be a Bond heroine. "Everyone was really responsive to having her be what I wanted," says Lynch. "You're given a fresh perspective on a brand-new black woman in the Bond world."
https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/f...d_1-_2019_.jpg
Zoe McConnell
“Onscreen, I want to see the world as I see it when I open my front door in the morning,” says Lynch when it comes to representation. “If I have anything to do with it, it will happen.”
Bond girls have a complicated history. For decades, they've had a reputation for being eye candy, wooed by Bond and then cast off. In 1964's Goldfinger, ***** Galore (Honor Blackman) says repeatedly she's not interested, but Bond tosses her to the ground and kisses her; in From Russia With Love (1963), Bond attempts to beat a confession out of Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi); and in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, Bond pulls a bikini top off Marie (Denise Perrier) and strangles her with it. Recent films have brought more fully realized female characters into the series, including Judi Dench's M, Naomie Harris' Moneypenny and Léa Seydoux's Madeleine Swann, the latter two of whom return in No Time to Die. Still, both de Armas and Lynch paused before signing on.
"[The women] have been sexualized before, a stereotype, a kind of woman who will always be in danger and waiting to be rescued by Bond," says de Armas.
De Armas notes that she has worked hard to avoid being typecast. After attending Cuba's National Theater School, she moved to Spain when she 18. "Literally two weeks after I moved, I was cast as one of the lead actors in a new TV show that became like the most successful TV show for the next three years," she says of booking El Internado, a drama set at a boarding school. But after a few years in Madrid, she found herself outgrowing it — she was 22 playing 16. She moved to Los Angeles, where her Hands of Stone co-star Édgar Ramírez introduced her to his agent.
https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/f...ed_2-_2019.jpg
Zoe McConnell
“There’s been an evolution. She’s not just there, going from point A to B, just walking and looking beautiful,” says de Armas of her character in Bond. “She has a purpose.”
The problem was, she didn't speak English. She found herself at CAA, sitting with "a full team that I really couldn't communicate with," she says. She even booked a major horror film, Knock Knock with Keanu Reeves, without speaking the language. "I learned it phonetically," she says. "I wasn't really sure what I was saying." She quickly enrolled in English classes and, as soon as she could say a few words, called her team with a mandate — she didn't want to go out for Latin-specific roles: "I said, 'I don't want to audition for Maria, Juana and Lola and all these things. I want to audition for the same parts that everybody is auditioning for.' "
She booked War Dogs with Miles Teller and Jonah Hill and Overdrive with Scott Eastwood. A role in 2017's Blade Runner 2049 as Ryan Gosling's love interest was supposed to be her breakout, but the film underperformed. "I think I was home literally doing nothing for a year," she says. The paycheck did allow her to buy her first big splurge, a house in Cuba, which she still visits regularly.
When her agents told her about a role in Knives Out, Johnson's comedic mystery ensemble, she was put off by the "pretty Latina caretaker" logline and passed on even auditioning. "I'm like, 'Latina again, really? No! I am not doing this.' " She only agreed to go in when they sent her the script and she realized the part was the heart of the film, a kind caregiver with secrets of her own who is swept up in the family drama (and vomits when she's lying). "She's obviously got tremendous skills as an actor," says Johnson, who cast her, "but those eyes, man, you just look at those eyes and instantly you're on her side." (The film features her Bond co-star Craig as well as Toni Collette, Chris Evans and Michael Shannon.)
https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/f...bed_-2019_.jpg
Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
From left, Sylvia Hoeks, Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling and de Armas promoted Blade Runner 2049.
https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/f...bed_-2019_.jpg
Claire Folger/Lionsgate
De Armas (left) and Katherine Langford in Knives Out.