CommanderBond.net

Now on the CBn main page...

Barbara Broccoli On Bond, Daniel Craig, Casino Royale, And More

BBC Radio 4 Interview

Found this interview with Barbara Broccoli from BBC Radio 4's WOMAN'S HOUR.

She doesn't do that many interviews....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2006_46_mon.shtml

Thanks for this, I haven't heard her talk that much about Casino Royale. This goes against the "Feminist Babs hiring a female M because of PC", ah, it's this interview where Babs says about the sea scene (and it not being planned as seen)

Good interview. Especially the vegetable connection....

Good interview. Especially the vegetable connection....

I don't have RealPlayer and certainly don't want to grab that crap to hear this, but it sounds interesting. Anyone offer a partial transcription?

That's such a cool little interview especially the bit about DC coming out of the sea & all the women on set gasping!
Barbara's the No 1 Bond girl.

I can't get it to work at the moment... what is this "vegetable connection" referred to?! Something to do with broccoli? Cheers!

Dang, I want to hear this! It's a shame Barbara doesn't give more interviews, when she does she's often very well spoken and articulate about any topics relating to Bond, she certainly seems to be shouldering her father's legacy well. Sort of sticks the foot in the mouth of a great many people who distrust M&B. Not saying they're totally immune to criticism at times, but they certainly do know what they're doing.

The Interview:

I: Interviewer
B: Babs

I: If you were there in 1962, when James Bond first appeared on screen in Dr. No, and I was, although I shouldn't have been as it was an A and I was only 12, you'd have noticed the names of the producers, as they were so unusual, Saltzman and Broccoli and if you go to see the much publicised new Bond, Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig as 007, you'll see the Broccoli name is still up there, Cubby died in 1996, but his daugher Barbara, together with her step-brother, Michael G. Wilson, is keeping the family franchise alive and well. Not only was she instrumental in bringing in Craig to be Bond, she was also responsible in 1995 for suggesting M should be a woman and she's still there.

(Clip of M and Bond in her flat after the Madagascar "trouble")

I: Barbara, what made you decide that M should be a woman?

B: Well, Jenny, I'd love to take credit for that decision, but infact it was a combination of our writer at the time, Bruce Feirstein and our director, Martin Campbell, um, they had come up with the idea and presented it to Michael and I thought it was a great idea, but I was concerned about the casting because I, what I said is that it shouldn't come off as a gimmick, you know, if were going to cast a woman she had to be real, her character had to be real and she had to be played by a really substantial actress and we were just really over the moon when Judi Dench said she would do it.

Part 2 coming soon...

Part 2...

I: It did coincide, I suppose, with Dame Stella Rimington having been head of MI5

B: That's right.

I: So was that an inspiration for it?

B: Well it wasn't, well I think it was an inspiration for them and it also game it some credibility, and it gave the relationship between she and Bond a completely different spin, which I thought was, you know, very interesting.

I: You were only 2 when the first Bond came out, what do you remember of those early years of it and your fathers attitude to it?

B: Well, I grew up in a household where James Bond was constantly mentioned, so I think I thought he was a real person, up until about 7 or 8, he was much talked about like, you know, sometimes you'd have a family member who was, sort of, you know a bit of an enigma, and your always waiting for him to appear, and, um, I think it was about, when I was about 7 or 8, when we were on location in Japan when my father was making "You Only Live Twice" and I just remember what an exciting experience that was, to go to this wonderful country and to see these extraordinary ceremonies, we were at a tea ceremony there with Sean Connery and the reaction to Sean Connery was so extraordinary, and I think that's when I kind of figured out oh this is, you know, all kind of playing, as opposed to real life.

Part 3 soon...

Part 3...

I: And how much did your father want to make "Casino Royale"? Because it's rumoured that you really made it for him.

B: Well it, what happened was, when my father and his partner, Harry Saltzman, acquired the rights from Ian Fleming, in 1961, Casino Royale, which was the first book that Fleming wrote, had already, um, the rights to that had already gone and it had been made in America as a television play, and so, they were very upset because it's the most important book in the series because it defines the character in many ways, and um, it's the holy grail of the Bond legacy, so when Michael and I managed to get the rights in 1999, we kept trying to decide when to make it and we just decided that the time felt right now.

I: Now um, we had a big debate on this program a couple of years ago, when it was decided that Pierce Brosnan would not continue, our listeners voted to keep Brosnan, number one, and their second choice was Clive Owen, Daniel Craig didn't even figure, what was about him that appealed?

B: Well, I have to say, it was a very painful time when we decided to make Casino Royale, because it meant that we couldn't hire an actor who had already played the role and that was very painful for Pierce, and it was also very difficult for us, because we had such a great relationship with him and, um, and he'd made the most successful of the films in the series, but once we made the decision we were going to make Casino Royale, obviously the biggest thing was who to cast, and I have to say, in my mind it was always Daniel, I'd seen him, you know I live in England and I'd been following his career for many years, and he just has this, apart from being the most extraordinary actor, he also has this screen presence and this charisma, that's sort of unparalleled.

I: and as the evil man in the film says, he certainly looks after his body.

B: (laughs) You noticed that Jenny?

I: (also laughing) I think every woman who's seen it, notices it.

Part 4 coming soon...

Part 4 (It's a very long interview, this is only half way)

I: He does get tortured, now it is common, sorry to ask you this, but for Bond's private parts to be put at risk in films, we're remember the circular saw with Sean Connery and the laser beam, that I think went at Pierce Brosnan, what's going on there?

B: Well it's, that was Fleming, I mean, Fleming in the books constantly had Bond tortured, particularly in his private parts, I guess that if your going to torture a man, that's a good place to start.

(They laugh)

B: The torture scene in the book is incredibly important, because it's during this torture scene that Bond realises that he could die, and um, and he is being tortured because he, because the villain wants him to give up the money, and he makes the descicion that he isn't going to give up and, so it sort of defines him in the way that he realises that if he's going to take on this job of 00, that he has to realise that he can be killed at any moment, and in this film it also explains why, in his relationship with women, he realises he has to give up a normal life, he can't be married and have children, because, he can put himself in danger, but he can't put his loved ones in danger.

Part 5 coming soon...

Part 5...

I: Of cause he does fall in love, in this film, with Vesper, although their relationship is quiet "testy" at the beginning, here she's furious with him because he's blown his cover by revealing his real name.

(Scene with Bond and Vesper at the Hotel reception)

I: The women are beautiful of cause, as they always are in a Bond film, but it is actually Craig who emerges from the sea in the "Ursula Andress / Halle Berry" pose, where he is, as has been pointed out everywhere, in a pair of quite tight bathing trunks, how consciously are you playing with that idea of the sex object?

B: Well, the funny thing was, that was a scene that was in the script and it's basically a scene that has Bond just surveying a property and looking for a villain called Dimitrios and so, in the script it just said "Bond comes out of the sea and onto the beach and meets Dimitrios' wife, Solange". On the day that we were shooting, Daniel came out with a bathrobe on and went into the sea and we started filming, and of cause, he came out of the sea and all the women on the set just gasped, we couldn't believe our eyes, you know, it wasn't intended that way, but it certainly made an impact, and his physique was extraordinary, but he had been training for about 3 months, not just for anathestic reason, I mean, when he decided to take the role on, he said "I need to be absolutely in the best shape I can be in, because that's the shape Bond would be in", so he did weapons training and underwater training and he's in all the fight scenes, I mean, that's really him. So he needed to be agile and fit, we also had a 6 month shooting schedule, so he needed to be in tip-top condition, and boy did he prove he was.

Part 6 coming soon...

Part 6... (only 2 minutes left)

I: The film isn't quiet as funny as they've been in the past, I mean, there is a great line where the barman asks him which he prefers, a shaken or stirred Martini, and he says (she laughs) "Does it look like I give a damn?", but to some exte