BAFTA, she points out, only introduced an award for Best Casting in 2020, becoming the first major film awards ceremony to do so. The Academy Awards still has no such category. \u201cI find it really surprising \u2013 I think the trouble is that we don\u2019t assert ourselves enough, but we need to, because nobody else is going to if we don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve written to the Academy again this year to say, \u2018There is a glaring omission, chaps, how about it?\u2019 \u2013 whether it will ever happen or not, I do not know.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really quite shocking, because it means that we remain a kind of second class citizen \u2013 although most casting directors now will get a single screen upfront credit, we\u2019re the only people who get that who are not eligible for an Oscar\u2026 and it\u2019s a disgrace, frankly.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Though awards recognition appears long overdue, McWilliams insists she\u2019s happy with just \u201cgetting the job done\u201d \u2013 she points to the evolving role and changing face of \u2018the Bond girl\u2019 as one of her proudest achievements.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was quite a relief that it did start to demand a much more capable actress rather than just a pretty face,\u201d she says. \u201cWithout naming any names, there are one or two slightly dodgy bits of casting in previous films.\u201d<\/p>\n Casting Monica Bellucci, then aged 50, as Lucia Sciarra in the 2015 film Spectre<\/a> was a particular highlight.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had some incredibly nice emails from people who are just, you know, ordinary folks who\u2019ve written all sorts of nice things \u2013 there was quite a whoosh of middle-aged ladies when it was announced that Monica Bellucci was going to be in it. They all <\/span>went, \u2018Fantastic, a 50-year-old actress is going to be in James Bond!\u2019 \u2013 and, you know, obviously, she\u2019s not your average 50-year-old, but it just proved that the age really didn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The easiest bit of casting was getting Dame Judi Dench to play Bond\u2019s superior M \u2013 McWilliams was convinced that Dench, a respected Shakespearean actress, would \u201cnever say yes\u201d to a role in a blockbuster, but a personal connection between Dench and the late Bernard Lee<\/a>, who\u2019d played the original M from 1962 to 1979, meant she leapt at the opportunity to pay tribute to her friend.<\/p>\n The most challenging part was Vesper Lynd, Bond\u2019s first true love whose betrayal and subsequent demise proves formative for the rookie 00 agent in 2006\u2019s Casino Royale<\/a>. \u201cPrior to that film, there had been a sort of stigma around the \u2018Bond girl\u2019 role and it was very hard to persuade serious actresses to even look at it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEva [Green] had always been on the list, but there had been a certain resistance to her \u2013 I don\u2019t really know why, but I think they felt that maybe she didn\u2019t have enough experience. She\u2019d only done a few films and they\u2019d all been very underground, low-budget type of things, b<\/span>ut working with someone like Barbara [Broccoli, producer on the Bond series], who has just such a fantastic instinct, we both really, really liked her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Green\u2019s first screen test, however, didn\u2019t go according to plan. \u201cI\u2019m sure she would be the first to admit she was terrible,\u201d says McWilliams. \u201cNobody had put her in hair and make-up and all the rest of it, so it didn\u2019t do her any justice whatsoever, and rather terrifyingly we started shooting Casino Royale without having cast that part. In fact, we hadn\u2019t cast Le Chiffre [eventually played by Mads Mikkelsen] either\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut both Barbara and I insisted that Eva came back and had another go \u2013 this time, she was in hair and make-up, and she was in wardrobe, and she felt much calmer about the whole thing, and so that\u2019s what sealed it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s one piece of casting in the Bond franchise, though, that generates more discussion and speculation than any other \u2013 that of the lead character.\u00a0With Daniel Craig having bowed out with 2021\u2019s No Time to Die<\/a>, actors linked to the role of 007 in the press have included Bridgerton<\/a>\u2018s Reg\u00e9-Jean Page, Henry Cavill, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Idris Elba, Slow Horses<\/a> star Jack Lowden<\/a>, Tom Hardy, and James Norton.<\/p>\n McWilliams though insists that the search for Craig\u2019s replacement is yet to get under way<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s no conversation being had at the moment. <\/span>Barbara Broccoli has been heavily involved in other projects. You know, it\u2019s not unusual for there to be quite a big gap between different Bonds, it has been known to have a five-year gap. So, no, nothing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Most of the rumours make her \u201cdie laughing\u201d, she says. \u201cI have a theory, which I\u2019ve trotted out many times, is that when there\u2019s a gap in a newspaper, they fill it with a James Bond story, because they haven\u2019t got anything else to write about. Why people can\u2019t just wait and see, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There is \u201cno set process\u201d for casting Bond, McWilliams reveals \u2013 the number of actors she\u2019s met with for the part has varied with each new search. \u201cWhen Daniel was cast, I met hundreds of people and travelled here, there and everywhere. Barbara Broccoli was the main advocate \u2013 she knew she wanted him pretty much from the beginning, but it was proving to everybody else which was the difficulty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Once an actor\u2019s casting is \u201cpretty much decided\u201d, they\u2019ll then face a final hurdle of a filmed screen test. \u201cIt\u2019s really just to see how that person looks on screen, and how they respond, and how they feel sitting in that chair.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As for the qualities that McWilliams is looking for when casting Bond, she says there\u2019s \u201clots to be taken into consideration\u201d \u2013 chiefly though, the person in question must simply be \u201ca brilliant actor\u201d with physical ability and prowess. \u201cThere isn\u2019t an absolute ideal mould,\u201d she explains. \u201cThere never would be and never should be, because otherwise, it just becomes boring.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the best person for the job and one year it might be one person, one year somebody else \u2013 you can\u2019t really predict. There isn\u2019t an algebraic thing where we say, \u2018Right, we have this and we have that, and it equals that\u2019. It just doesn\u2019t work like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The approach to each new film and the desired tone will impact casting \u2013 the desire to have Casino Royale feel \u201cmore contemporary\u201d led to Craig\u2019s casting, with the desire \u201cto give Bond a bit more of a kind of menace\u201d.\u00a0\u201cYou know, let\u2019s face it, as good as Pierce was, he\u2019s not a menace, whereas Daniel is \u2013 you feel a very strong presence in the room with him, and I think that that is incredibly important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Bond must always be athletic, but also able to blend into a crowd. \u201cHe has to look like a regular guy \u2013 you can\u2019t be Dwayne Johnson. He has to have a great physique \u2013 it demands a high level of fitness \u2013 but he shouldn\u2019t stand out in any situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/04\/eva-green-casino-royale-6bccc52.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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