The era-defining ‘Bond girl’ who almost blew their biggest moment: “She was terrible”
There have been dozens and dozens of women who’ve played important roles in James Bond movies, but it takes a special kind of ‘Bond girl’ to define an era.
For the most part, and not to be reductive, since many of them have admitted as much, they’ve been eye candy. They’re there to serve a purpose, whether that’s hopping into bed with 007, betraying him at the villain’s behest, or serving as the requisite damsel in distress who needs to be rescued.
There were literally only four archetypes that were allowed for decades, with the franchise having no interest in presenting its prominent female figures as well-drawn, fully-rounded, and three-dimensional characters with any sense of agency beyond being bedded, killed, or saved.
Obviously, things have changed, and in terms of influence and impact, there’s never been a ‘Bond girl’ like Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd. Sure, she was only in Casino Royale, but her shadow loomed over Daniel Craig’s entire five-film tenure as the iconic secret agent, something that can’t be said about any of her predecessors.
For fuck sake, Bond got married to Diana Rigg’s Teresa di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and after she was killed off before the credits rolled, she was barely mentioned again. Vesper, meanwhile, informed Craig’s entire arc for a quintet of big-budget blockbusters, making her the single strongest throughline across his 15-year stretch as 007.
Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre may have tickled his balls, but it was Green who won his heart, which almost didn’t come to pass after a disastrous screen test. The actor, who was reluctant to begin with, since she was fully aware of the ‘Bond girl’ limitations and the curse that often follows, didn’t blow everyone away at first.
Casting director Debbie McWilliams admitted that “it was very hard to persuade serious actresses to even look at it,” thanks to the “stigma around the ‘Bond girl’ role.” Green wasn’t sold on the prospect, and the producers weren’t completely sold on her, either, which led to an awful first impression.
“I’m sure she would be the first to admit she was terrible,” McWilliams noted. “Nobody had put her in hair and makeup and all the rest of it, so it didn’t do her any justice whatsoever, and rather terrifyingly, we started shooting Casino Royale without having cast that part.” Fortunately, and with time running out, Green knocked it out of the park the second time around.
Like many ‘Bond girls’ before her, Vesper failed to survive until the end of the movie, but that didn’t stop her from remaining one of the most prominent presences through Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die, and it almost went up in smoke after a bungled first audition.
