Current James Bond director Cary Fukunaga has claimed in an interview that the iconic 007 played by Sean Connery was “basically” a rapist.
The NYU grad noted the questionable sex scenes in the classic 1960s’ movies and told The Hollywood Reporter how he would help update the famous British spy for the #MeToo era.
“Is it Thunderball or Goldfinger where, like, basically Sean Connery’s character rapes a woman?” Fukunaga asked, referring to two of the six Bond movies that starred Connery, who died last October.
“She’s like ‘No, no, no,’ and he’s like, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’” Fukunaga, 44, said.
“That wouldn’t fly today,” he told the trade mag.
Fukunaga — who recently moved back to Manhattan — appeared to be referring to 1965’s “Thunderball,” in which Connery’s Bond forcibly kisses a nurse who had spurned his advances, The Guardian noted.
In a later scene, Bond said he would only keep quiet about information that would cost her her job at “a price.”
“You don’t mean … oh, no,” the nurse played by Molly Peters replied, with Connery’s Bond saying “Oh, yes” as he pushes her into a sauna and takes off her clothes.
Barbara Broccoli, who has been producing Bond films since 1995, praised Fukunaga for bringing Bond up-to-date in the upcoming “No Time to Die,” which is Daniel Craig’s last time playing the suave spy.
“I think people are coming around — with some kicking and screaming — to accepting that stuff is no longer acceptable. Thank goodness,” she said of previous sexism and questionable sex scenes in older movies.
“Bond is a character who was written in 1952 and the first film [“Dr. No”] came out in 1962. He’s got a long history, and the history of the past is very different to the way he is being portrayed now.”
Fukunaga said he was excited by Craig’s 007 because of “how much more raw and brutal and brooding he is. I much prefer that Bond than the one-eyebrow-up version,” he told THR.
“You can’t change Bond overnight into a different person. But you can definitely change the world around him and the way he has to function in that world,” he said.
“It’s a story about a white man as a spy in this world, but you have to be willing to lean in and do the work to make the female characters more than just contrivances.”
“No Time to Die” will be in US cinemas from Oct. 8. Craig’s replacement as Bond has yet to be announced.