THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 66 NOVEMBER 6, 2019

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“I saw Phoebe, and I just blushed

— I got red like a tomato,” says

de Armas, 31. “I was like, ‘Oh my

God, can I hug you? I want to be

your friend.’ ” De Armas’ co-star,

Lashana Lynch, had a similar

reaction when she learned of

Waller-Bridge’s involvement. “I

very literally squealed when I first

heard her name,” says Lynch, 31.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, British

girl just like me. She’s going to

know how to actually take care of

women onscreen.’ ”

Never has that been so criti-

cal for a Bond film. When it’s

released April 10, the $250 mil-

lion No Time to Die will be the

first entry in the series to land in

a #MeToo and Time’s Up world.

And while the $7 billion fran-

chise may forever be best known

for its womanizing namesake

agent, director Fukunaga (Tr u e

Detective, Beasts of No Nation) and

producer Barbara Broccoli have

worked hard with both Lynch and

de Armas to create a new type

of female Bond character who is

much more fully realized than the

“Bond girls” of films past.

“It’s pretty obvious that there

is an evolution in the fact that

Lashana is one of the main

characters in the film and wears

the pants — literally. I wear the

gown. She wears the pants,” says

de Armas, curled up in a chair in

the lobby of London’s Charlotte

Street Hotel.

She and Lynch, chatting about

their career trajectories for THR’s

annual Next Gen issue, are both

in the midst of breakout years. In

addition to Bond, de Armas plays

a lead in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out

(Nov. 27) and will portray Marilyn

Monroe in Netflix’s Blonde, arriv-

ing in 2020. Lynch co-starred

in March’s blockbuster Captain

Marvel and will soon begin shoot-

ing FX’s anticipated comic book

adaptation of Y: T h e L a s t M a n.

Now they are one week away

from wrapping what has been an

epic six-month Bond shoot, and

both are exhausted. De Armas

pours two packets of sugar into

her coffee. “I use a lot of sugar,”

says the Cuban-Spanish actress

apologetically as she cracks open

still another packet. “I usually put

condensed milk in it — we call it

café bon bon.”

Lynch, who plays a British

agent in the film, is presently at

her West London home sleeping

after shooting late into the night,

but during an interview at the

Ace Hotel the next day, her voice

cracks from strain and she orders

a hot tea. “Luckily, we don’t have

any speaking scenes next week, so

I don’t have to use it,” she says.

These two rising stars don’t

have much in common when it

comes their paths to Bond. One

was born in Cuba. The other in

London to Jamaican parents.

One cut her teeth on Spanish

TV, the other on the stage. But

both have roots tied to this lat-

est Bond outing, which is set in

Cuba and Jamaica. And through

their characters, they’re help-

ing redefine what it means to be

a Bond heroine. “Everyone was

really responsive to having her

be what I wanted,” says Lynch.

“You’re given a fresh perspective

on a brand-new black woman in

the Bond world.”

Bond girls have a complicated

history. For decades, they’ve had

a reputation for being eye candy,

wooed by Bond and then cast off.

In 1964’s Goldfinger, Pussy Galore

(Honor Blackman) says repeat-

edly she’s not interested, but

Bond tosses her to the ground and

kisses her; in Thunderball (1965),

Bond attempts to beat a confes-

sion out of Tatiana Romanova

(Daniela Bianchi); and in 1971’s

Diamonds Are Forever, Bond pulls

a bikini top off Marie (Denise

Perrier) and strangles her with it.

Recent films have brought more

fully realized female charac-

ters into the series, including

Judi Dench’s M, Naomie Harris’

Moneypenny and Léa Seydoux’s

Madeleine Swann, the latter two

of whom return in No Time to Die.

Still, both de Armas and Lynch

paused before signing on.

“[The women] have been sexu-

alized before, a stereotype, a kind

of woman who will always be in

danger and waiting to be rescued

by Bond,” says de Armas.

“Onscreen, I want

to see the world as

I see it when I open

my front door in the

morning,” says Lynch

when it comes to

representation. “If I

have anything to do

with it, it will happen.”

Veronica Beard

jumpsuit, David Morris

earrings & rings.

From left:

Lynch, Brie

Larson and

Gemma

Chan at

the March

premiere

of Captain

Marvel, in

which Lynch

(right) plays

a pilot and

single mom.

hen Ana de Armas first arrived at London’s

Pinewood Studios to shoot No Time to Die, the

25th installment in the James Bond franchise,

she was a bit starstruck — though not when

introduced to lead Daniel Craig. It happened

as she was walking into a meeting with

director Cary Joji Fukunaga, who was chatting

with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the British

creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve who’d been

hired to bring a fresh female perspective (and

W some humor) to the film’s script.