Bond girls could be a bit more interesting but there’s no need for 007 to be a woman, says Ana de Armas
SHE stole the scene as a karate-kicking, slinky-dressed secret agent in last year’s No Time To Die – but that doesn’t mean actress Ana de Armas thinks the 007 role should be given to a woman. She says: “There’s no need for a female Bond. “There shouldn’t be any need to steal someone else’s character, […]
SHE stole the scene as a karate-kicking, slinky-dressed secret agent in last year’s No Time To Die – but that doesn’t mean actress Ana de Armas thinks the 007 role should be given to a woman.
She says: “There’s no need for a female Bond.
“There shouldn’t be any need to steal someone else’s character, you know, to take over.
“This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he’s at.”
Instead, in future Bond films she would like to see meatier roles for women alongside 007 himself.
Ana, 34, who played the mysterious Paloma in Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007, continues: “What I would like is that the female roles in the Bond films, even though Bond will continue to be a man, are brought to life in a different way.
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“That they’re given a more substantial part and recognition. That’s what I think is more interesting than flipping things.”
That is a tantalising prospect for fans who called for a spin-off for Paloma.
Many felt her departing line in the film — “Next time stay longer” — should apply to herself.
But the Cuban actress won’t have seen all the plaudits on social media, because she has turned her back on Twitter and Instagram.
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She says: “I deleted Twitter years ago. I have barely been on Instagram for almost a year.”
That means she won’t stumble across the selfies of her ex-boyfriend Ben Affleck marrying Jennifer Lopez in Las Vegas at the weekend.
Ana enjoyed a year-long lockdown romance with twice-married Ben after starring alongside him in the thriller Deep Water, out this year.
Just three months after they split in January 2021 the former Batman actor rekindled his relationship with J-Lo.
Reportedly though, it was Ana who decided to end things with Ben, who is 15 years her senior, as she didn’t want to live in Los Angeles any more, calling it “a city that keeps you anxious”.
He needed to stay because his three children from his marriage to Jennifer Garner are there.
These days Ana lives on the other side of the United States in New York, with her new man, Tinder vice president Paul Boukadakis.
Constant filming means that Ana, who was married to Spanish actor and model Marc Clotet for two years until 2013, doesn’t have much time to spend with 38-year-old Paul.
But she did make sure she spent some of her 34th birthday in April with him, even though she was working until 1am on the set of the action adventure Ghosted.
At the end of the day’s filming with her pal Chris Evans they stopped for cake and an American whisky called a Fireball.
She said: “I had everybody with me — my man, my dogs, Chris and the crew.
“I wasn’t home having a romantic dinner, I was on set with my people doing what I love and at the beach and having a shot of Fireball.
“It is the happiest I’ve been.”
Her latest film, Bond-style spy drama The Gray Man, out on Friday, has cost £165million and is reportedly the most expensive movie made yet by streaming giant Netflix.
In it, her character, CIA operative Dani Miranda, cuts up bad guys and smashes up fast cars while helping out Ryan Gosling’s rogue undercover agent Six.
The star-studded cast also includes Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page and Billy Bob Thornton.
Like her male co-stars, Ana wants to make those high-energy sequences feel real by doing as many of her own stunts as possible.
She says: “It’s amazing to have a double to do the dangerous things for you but there’s something in there that you feel like capable, you know?
“And you’re like, ‘I can do that. Let me do that. Let me try’.”
For The Gray Man, which starts streaming on Friday, Ana did plenty of gun training.
But the 5ft 6in actress struggled to carry all the ammunition needed for the heavy-duty weaponry Dani fires in the film.
She recalls: “I’m, like, at the shooting range with a vest on and all the magazines and the grenades and the thing and the vest — that alone is like 20lb — and then the rifle is another 15lb.
“And Chili, my trainer, he’s like telling me to run and I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I can’t even move’.”
But lugging guns around is something Ana will have to get used to.
Her next project is Ballerina, a spin-off of the Keanu Reeves series John Wick, which is sure to have a high body count.
It will also mean more of the kinds of cuts, bruises and muscle pulls that Daniel Craig had to put up with while making five Bond films.
She adds: “You get to the limit of your body.
“The accumulation of bruises and injuries and just tiredness and you have to keep working.
“And it takes what, like in this one, three months of prep plus five months of shooting and travelling and it takes a toll on you and you have to keep going . . . and the energy.”
Fortunately the next film that fans will get to see after The Gray Man will have a very different pace and style to what we’ve seen so far from Ana.
Her performance as Marilyn Monroe in the reportedly 18-rated biopic Blonde is certain to shock many Netflix viewers, as it will feature a rape scene.
Director Andrew Dominik said: “It’s a demanding movie. If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f***ing audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office.”
While the pandemic hindered many careers, Ana’s flourished.
She says: “I feel like during Covid I actually did not stop working at all.
“And it was strange but I feel so lucky at the same time and I’d just been doing one project after the other and it is exhausting and at the same time so exciting.
“You don’t want to let go.”
Even so, there were worrying times too. While she was working on No Time To Die, travel restrictions meant she was unable to return to Cuba, where her dad Ramon, a former teacher, was suffering from a non-Covid illness.
Today, all her past moving from continent to continent for her work has left Ana unsure about her true home.
Born in the Cuban capital Havana, she grew up in a small town on the island’s coast before moving to Spain at the age of 18 to pursue her acting dreams.
But it wasn’t until she tried her luck in the movie capital of Hollywood eight years later that her career really took off.
The role of Gosling’s holographic girlfriend in Blade Runner 2049 grabbed everyone’s attention in 2017.
Yet she doesn’t yet feel at home in the United States, saying: “Am I part of the community? I barely know anybody.”
That’s a surprising statement considering how many friends she has made in showbusiness in such a short time.
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Once a male star has worked with Ana, it seems they want to do so again, with Craig, Gosling, Evans and Reeves all coming back for more.
Now Bond fans will be hoping 007’s producers will also want to team up with her again.
