The ‘Bond girl’ finally cast at the third time of asking: “The fools said no”
The James Bond franchise has many tropes that have become staples across its long history. There are the gadgets, the fancy cars, the exotic locations, the rampant racial insensitivity, but perhaps the most iconic of all is the concept of the Bond girl. From Ursula Andress first stepping out of the water in Dr. No to Léa Seydoux’s more complex portrayal of Madeleine Swann, the role has evolved a lot over time (though some would like to see it evolve more) and will continue to change for as long as the series continues.
Being a Bond girl – or ‘Bond woman’, as some prefer – is a risky business. Some actors have suffered greatly from taking on the part of 007’s love interest, while the likes of Honor Blackman and Jill St. John established their careers off the back of their dalliances with the superspy. Then there are the women for whom a Bond film is but a part of their exemplary catalogues, like Italian actor Monica Bellucci.
Originally starting out as a model, Bellucci first came to international attention as one of the titular Count’s brides in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Roles in various European productions followed before she cemented her status as a global talent with her role as Persephone in the second and third ‘Matrix’ movies. In 2015, she appeared as Lucia Sciarra in Spectre, the 24th outing for Mr. Bond. At the age of 50, she became the oldest Bond girl ever, but she might have been involved in the series a lot earlier if things had gone differently.
According to Pierce Brosnan, Bellucci almost had the part of Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies. “She screen-tested to be a Bond girl a while back, and the fools said no,” he told Softpedia (via Yahoo! Movies). “Teri Hatcher stole the day instead.” Hatcher, who was considered a more viable box office option at the time, ended up playing the role of Bond’s ex and the trophy wife of villainous media mogul, Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce). That’s not the only close shave Bellucci had with the Bond franchise, however.
On the SpyHards podcast, Colin Salmon, who played Charles Robinson in three Bond movies, revealed that Bellucci “came in twice, once for Tomorrow Never Dies, and once for The World Is Not Enough.” Salmon was used as a substitute for Bond in test screenings, including for the character of Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough. “She straddled me, then strapped me to a chair and licked my face”, he recalled, but ultimately, her English was deemed “not up to where it needs to be” for the part. King was eventually played by Sophie Marceau.
In Spectre, Sciarra is the wife of an evil agent killed by Bond in the elaborate opening scene. She ends up giving the MI6 agent key information that leads to him discovering the underground organisation that gives the film its name, run by Christoph Waltz’s Franz Oberhauser, AKA Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Though Spectre turned out to be a confusing, thoroughly dull affair, Bellucci has spoken about how much she enjoyed being on set and bringing something new to the franchise as a ‘mature’ Bond girl. A lot of people seemed thrilled that she finally made it, with franchise producer Barbara Broccoli saying, “I couldn’t be more pleased that we finally got her in a Bond movie.”
