The actor who ruined their career playing a ‘Bond girl’: “They wanted nothing to do with me”
The archetype may have evolved and adapted with the times the longer the franchise wears on, but there are a number of former ‘Bond girls’ who’ve voiced their dissatisfaction with being 007’s object of affection once enough time has passed to let them look back on it objectively.
The most recent stretch of globetrotting espionage epics has sought to remedy the one-note conquests of the past by creating characters like Lashana Lynch’s Nomi, Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann, and Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd, even if Gemma Arterton’s initial excitement over playing Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace eventually dissipated.
Tsai Chin admitted her performance as Ling in You Only Live Twice had hardly aged well when revisited through a modern lens, and several of her fellow ex-‘Bond girls’ have voiced similar regrets over their parts being indicative of a time when cinema’s favourite secret agent was a product of his time that comes across as more than a little sexist and misogynistic when appraised in the 21st century.
Jane Seymour explained the double-edged sword of being another notch on Bond’s bedpost when she offered that for every door Live and Let Die opened for her career-wise, several more slammed shut because casting agents, directors, and producers struggled to separate the performer from the character they played, and she wasn’t the only one.
Luciana Paluzzi had dozens of credits under her belt before being hired as Spectre assassin and femme fatale Fiona Volpe in the franchise’s fourth flick, Thunderball. When the movie was released, the actor was still only 28 years old and realistically had a bright and increasingly promising future ahead of her after gaining international exposure and attention, but that wasn’t the case.
“To do a Bond picture is a blessing, but it’s also a curse,” Paluzzi shared in the Bond Girls Are Forever documentary. “When I went back to Italy, the Fellinis, Antonionis, and Viscontis wanted nothing to do with me.” Because she’d smouldered in such a mainstream role where she wasn’t given much to do other than sizzle opposite Sean Connery before being bumped off before the credits roles, the highest-profile auteurs in her home country were unwilling to work with someone who’d been tarred with the ‘Bond girl’ brush.
Paluzzi continued working solidly for over a decade, but she never again reached comparable heights to Bond, and she quietly retired from the business after making her last screen appearance in 1978. As she alluded to, Italy was overflowing with auteurs when she was active, but her association with 007 had completely eliminated her from their thinking even though she’d have jumped at the chance to work with any of them.
Thunderball may not have killed Paluzzi’s career in one fell swoop, but it did place certain limitations on it that she couldn’t control upon her return to home shores, ultimately becoming a burden.
