Halle Berry explains why she became a Bond girl for ‘Die Another Day’
Die Another Day may not have aged well, but it has its charm. The fourth Pierce Brosnan James Bond film, the 2002 action extravaganza was released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Dr. No, which had impressed ’60s audiences with the cool charm of its leading man, Sean Connery. With four decades of 007 to compete with, producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Brocolli set out to craft a film that would make From Russia With Love look like an old episode of Dad’s Army. That meant bigger explosions, more chase sequences, and a new kind of bond girl. Cue Halle Berry.
Before Ana De Armas, Eva Green and Gemma Arterton, Halle Berry played iconic Bond girl Jinx, an NSA agent assigned to assassinate a rogue North Korean agent called Zao, who is undergoing gene-replacement therapy at the Alverez clinic on Los Organos island, Cuba. On the island, Jinx meets James Bond, who is also on the hunt for Zao, hoping that he’ll be able to identify the double agent responsible for his 14-month imprisonment in North Korea. One thing leads to another, and soon enough, they’re throwing baddies into plane engines, duelling with swords and generally kicking butt.
For Berry, playing Jinx was a chance to add a new dimension to the Bond girl. “I play the feminine James Bond,” she said in an interview ahead of the film’s release. “She’s the next step in the evolution of women in the Bond movies. She’s more modern – more intelligent – and not the classic villain.”
Opening up about her decision to take the role, Berry told Vanity Fair: “I was really excited about Bond because that’s a franchise that’s iconic. It’s a part of film history, really, so to be a part of that franchise was very meaningful to me. And this version of a Bond woman was very different than any Bond woman I had seen before.”
Sophie Ellis Baxtor, Salma Hayek and Saffron Burrows had already been approached for the role, but in the end, Berry won out: “When Barbara Broccoli came to me with the role, she explained that I would get to be a different kind – a new kind – of Bond girl. Which would allow me to be more active and sort of be… working alongside Bond in a new way, and that really excited me. But also it excited me too to reimagine that great Ursula Anders scene that was so iconic… in a new way and pay homage to who she was and what this series was really all about.”
