The woman responsible for casting three of the most beloved James Bond actors has made her feelings clear about the current front-runners for the role, and she doesn’t want any of them.
Debbie McWilliams, the longtime casting director who worked on Bond films for 40 years and discovered Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig for the role, has said she does not want to see Jacob Elordi, Callum Turner or Harris Dickinson take on the iconic spy.
speaks to The independentMcWilliams, who retired before Amazon acquired the franchise, was candid about why.
“I don’t want to see any of them as Bond because we now know so much about them,” she said.
“It’s absolutely essential that Bond remains a total mystery. We want to know as little about them personally as possible, because that’s what spies are. We don’t need to know where he goes shopping, or who his parents are, or where he lives. We never want to see him at home. And a crucial element of it all is his job description. He has a license to kill, and you mustn’t think he’s lost that.”
All three actors, Elordi currently dating Kendall Jenner, Turner newly married to Dua Lipa and Dickinson, a rising star with a rising public profile, have become familiar presences in the tabloids, which McWilliams sees as precisely the problem.
She pointed to her own discoveries as evidence of what works.
“Timothy and Pierce weren’t very well-known. Daniel had a prior career in independent films and a pretty colorful romantic life, but he wasn’t a household name, and that helps tremendously.”
Her recipe for the next Bond is refreshingly simple: “I want to see someone completely out of the blue.”
On the question of whether Bond should remain male, she was equally adamant.
“That’s how Ian Fleming wrote it. Why do you want to change it? They didn’t change Harry Potter to Alice Potter or to a different ethnicity. That’s how it was written and that’s how it should stay, I think.”
The search for the next 007 is now officially underway.
Amazon confirmed in May that casting had begun, with Denis Villeneuve directing the 26th installment in the franchise.
Casting director Nina Gold, whose credits include Game of Thrones and the casting of Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakensleads the search.
The manuscript was written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, with Amy Pascal and David Heyman producing.
McWilliams may no longer be in the room where that happens, but given her track record, her instincts are worth listening to.
