The director of 'Skyfall' and 'Spectre' insists 'it would be wonderful to see a woman directing Bond' after Daniel Craig left the franchise following his 'No Time to Die' role.
- Sep 16, 2022
AceShowbiz - Sam Mendes would love to see a woman helming the next James Bond movie. After Lashana Lynch was named the first Black female 007, the "Skyfall" director thinks that if a new person is going to take the mantle from Daniel Craig, 54 - who played 007 for five movies between 2006 and 2021 - they should take the opportunity to do something groundbreaking with the franchise based on the series of spy novels by Ian Fleming.
"I think that the actor playing Bond is going to evolve, the director has to evolve. I think it would be wonderful to see a woman directing Bond. I think it would be wonderful," the 57-year-old movie maker told Deadline magazine.
Sam outlined his lack of interest in helming another Bond movie after he made 2012's "Skyfall" and 2015's "Spectre". He said, "I don't think they'd want me anymore. It was an incredible thing to do at that moment in my life; I couldn't have asked for a better thing. I saw the world in a different way."
The "Empire of Light" director detailed how he thought the movie theatre industry "was done" due to COVID-19 pandemic before the swift introduction of the vaccine. Sam said, "I honestly thought it was done… if it takes five years to develop a vaccine."
"I spent a large part of my lockdown trying to create the Theatre Artists Fund to look after freelance artists who make the f****** thing work. Not the buildings, or the staff, but the actors, directors, costume designers, etc. I thought if I don't do something about this we're literally all going to wake up one morning and there will be no more cinema and no more theatre. This was before the vaccine breakthrough."
