CommanderBond.net
  1. Samantha Won't Bond with The New 007

    By Guest writer on 2004-11-16

    It looks like Samantha Bond is making good on her promise to leave the James Bond series with Pierce Brosnan… as reported today reports the Daily Record.

    Miss Moneypenny actress Samantha Bond refuses to be shaken or stirred with anyone other than veteran 007 actor Pierce Brosnan. The 41-year-old, who has been in the last four Bond movies, reckons it’s the end of the line for her association with the spy now that Pierce has handed in his licence to kill. The sexy mum-of-two thinks love scenes with actors young enough to be her sons would be just ridiculous.

    “I just don’t want to go on being Moneypenny if Pierce isn’t there,” she said. “I really don’t. It’s an age thing, for a start. Pierce is just that little bit older than me – eight years – and when he’s doing all that saucy flirting with Moneypenny, it looks OK and a lot of fun, which it is. And she, of course, has her fantasies about being with him, having a romance. It’s a gift of a role.”

    But Samantha, mum of Molly, 13, and Tom, 11, said that, if they brought in a younger guy to play 007, the sizzling sexual chemistry just wouldn’t look right. “I think it’s going to look a bit off having a nod and a wink and a flirty moment,” she said. “Not very tasteful, to my mind. In fact, it could look a bit gruesome and icky. Older lady, much younger bloke – I don’t think so. There is one guy who I might consider as an exception if he was to be cast. But I am not going to reveal who he is, and wild horses won’t get his name out of me.”

    Big names being linked to the role include Hollywood hotshots Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell. But Samantha wondered whether either would actually want the role at this stage in their careers. “They both have highly successful careers,” she said. “Would they really want to become linked to someone like Bond, who is really such a very strong image and identity? Those two guys can do big earner films in their own right. They don’t need it. And from what I hear of Mr Farrell’s rather salty, non- compromising language, I wonder if they might have to bleep out a lot of the expletives? I’m Bond, James bleep Bond. Perhaps not. The other name being mentioned is James Purefoy. But he’s got a contract to play Mark Antony in the BBC’s TV production of Rome which will occupy the next five years, so that could be difficult to get around. And all those guys are younger than me, so…”

    Samantha had heard rumours that Irishman Pierce was retiring as Bond, but it wasn’t until she heard it from his own mouth she believed it. “When I first heard that Pierce was supposed to be calling it a day, I honestly wondered if the rumour was all part of a terribly elaborate publicity stunt,” she said. But one night Samantha and her actor husband actor Alex Hanson were watching TV when Pierce was a guest on Parkinson and confirmed it was true. She said, “We both looked at each other and said: ‘Well, he’s just said it himself, so that’s the end of the line’.”

    But Samantha isn’t bitter. She’s very grateful to have had the chance to be in the Bond films, although she does admit playing a key character like Moneypenny can be a bit of a poisoned chalice. She said, “The role might well be the only one that you are ever known for. I know that dear old Desmond Llewelyn felt that way. He believed the public only ever thought of him as Q, and that they knew nothing about his amazing body of work before he joined the 007 team. And what about the two actresses who played Moneypenny before I got the role? If you’re not very careful, playing a part as high-profile as that over a long time can put the kibosh on your career.Which is why I’ve been very careful to do a lot of other work on stage, in films and on TV. I don’t want to be typecast as Moneypenny for the rest of my life, much as I adore the lady. I’ve just been very lucky to play her in four box-office successes, and that’s it. It’s been 10 years and maybe enough is enough?”

    Samantha, who lives in London with her family, reckons being part of a Bond film is one of the most fun things an actor or actress can do. And another benefit for the busy working mum is that the Miss Moneypenny label does help pull in the punters to all the charity events she is involved with.

    Among the causes for which Sam waves a banner are Macmillan nurses, the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Shooting Star Hospice for Children. She has good reason for supporting cancer charities…. She said, ‘When I look at my two children, and my nephews and niece, who are all so well and happy, you cannot help but feel so very, very blessed and so incredibly fortunate.”

    Samantha has three new TV projects soon to air. In Murder Room, a BBC two-parter going out at the New Year, she plays a frosty woman with a terrible secret. Then there’s Donovan, in which Samantha stars with Tom Conti, andan ITV six-part comedy-drama series Distant Shores. “And that,” said Samantha with a huge grin, “is at last a piece with a bit of comedy in it. I’m Lisa, the wife of Bill, played by Peter Davison, who is a very successful, if extremely arrogant, plastic surgeon.”

    -by: Samantha Booth of The Daily Record

    Sidenote: Samantha’s son Tom was horrified to see his mother snogging James Bond in Die Another Day.