USA TODAY International Edition
A FIERCE FOUR: ACTRESSES ADD SPICE TO SPY WORLD
The women of the James Bond movie Spectre — Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux, Stephanie Sigman and Naomie Harris — take pride in continuing the legacy of femme fatales and female agents played by everyone from Ursula Andress and Honor Blackman to Famke Janssen and Halle Berry.
In Bellucci’s case, there had been interest in her joining the 007 franchise when “I was very young,” the Italian actress says. But “I take so much time to do things in life. I had my first child at 40 and my second child at 45, and now I’m a Bond girl at 50.”
The Bond played in recent years by Daniel Craig has tended to be realistic and modern rather than campy and throwback, and so it goes with his female foils.
“The women in this film have a very strong position,” says Seydoux, who plays the agent’s love interest Madeleine Swann.
Continuing the story from 2012’ s Skyfall, Spectre involves a mysterious missive from Bond’s past that sends him on a rogue mission to ferret out a nefarious international organization.
Bond fans will be surprised by Madeleine’s depth and personality, Seydoux says. Her doctor also holds a whopper of a secret. “She’s quite unexpected. She’s strong — not like him, but she’s powerful. And they need each other to resolve their problems.”
Bond also has a romantic entanglement with Lucia Sciarra, the Italian widow played by Bellucci. Madeleine is strong and independent, and “wants to be equal to men” like Bond, Bellucci says. “Lucia is a woman from the past. She comes from a world where men have the only power.”
Harris returns with a more action- packed take on Eve Moneypenny, an iconic player in Bond lore, who has grown up since Skyfall. In Spectre, there’s a mutual bond and respect between her and Craig’s hero.
That relationship comes into play when the other agents at MI6 wonder whether he’s lost his mind as Bond goes lone wolf. “Moneypenny knows the demands of that profession that make it difficult to sleep at night,” Harris says. “That’s why he chooses her to open up to.”
As the mysterious Estrella, Mexican actress Stephanie Sigman feels the pressure of playing opposite Bond.
“That makes me nervous because that’s on me — I didn’t have this before,” says Sigman, who began her movie career five years ago. “It feels strange, but if you’re nervous, it’s probably worth it.”
Bellucci sees 007’ s recent women reflecting the revolutionary thinking that surrounds the spy franchise now.
Earlier in the 53- year- old movie series, the secret agent was a man in control who seduced all the Bond girls, but there’s more respect for women these days, as well as a deeper sense of storytelling, she says.
“He’s a Bond who’s looking inside himself. He’s a Bond who kills but is looking for death,” the actress says. “It’s a struggle and because of that he becomes darker but at he same time more mysterious and even sexier.”