There’s a reason Helen Mirren has never popped up in a James Bond film: She has boldly declared that she’s not a fan of the hugely successful spy franchise.
Mirren, 79, doesn’t believe the smooth-talking MI6 agent should ever be played by a woman due to the “profound sexism” of the movies.
“I have to say I was never a great ward [of Bond],” the actress said in a new interview with the Standard. “I’m a huge fan of Pierce Brosnan, I mean, massive fan. I mean, oh, my God. Obviously, he’s gorgeous and everything, and I think he’s fabulous in MobLand, but he also happens to be one of the nicest people you’ll ever have the pleasure to work with. And indeed Daniel Craig, who I’ve met and know a little bit, again — a very lovely, gracious person.”
She added: “The whole series of James Bond, it was not my thing. It really wasn’t. I never liked James Bond. I never liked the way women were in James Bond. The whole concept of James Bond is drenched and born out of profound sexism. Women have always been a major and incredibly important part of the Secret Service, they always have been. And very brave. If you hear about what women did in the French Resistance, they’re amazingly, unbelievably courageous. So I would tell real stories about extraordinary women who’ve worked in that world.”
Stars Who Have Played James Bond Over the Years
Mirren is currently starring as a scheming mob wife in her new show MobLand, which is about an Irish crime dynasty — and Brosnan plays her husband in the series, which also stars Tom Hardy and Paddy Considine.
Meanwhile, the future direction of Bond is uncertain in the wake of Amazon’s acquisition of the franchise. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James and James Norton are all rumored to be in the running to play the womanizing spy next. Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal and Harry Potter producer David Heyman will oversee the next film.
Brosnan, who starred in four of the movies from 1995 to 2002, recently told the Sunday Telegraph that it’s a “given” that Bond will be British, adding “I hope that [Amazon] handles the work and the character with dignity and imagination and respect.”
Fellow Bond alum Timothy Dalton, meanwhile, has said the Amazon deal has left him “kind of sad” because “it is one of the few wonderful stories we’ve got in film that is British.”
Pierce Brosnan Says Aaron Taylor-Johnson Should Be the Next James Bond
It’s now been four years since the most recent Bond movie, No Time to Die, was released in 2021, with Craig making his final appearance as the charismatic spy.
