For the most part, the episodic story structure of the James Bond franchise has produced timeless spy adventures. But certain tropes and motifs – like the “Bond girl” – are widely recognized as problematic. The most recent run of Bond films, starring Daniel Craig as 007, made a conscious effort to improve the series’ female representation.
Craig’s five-year stint in the role of Bond – from No Time to Die – featured some of the franchise’s most one-dimensional and forgettable “Bond girls,” like Strawberry Fields and Lucia Sciarra, but also some of its most interesting female characters, like Vesper Lynd and Dr. Madeleine Swann.
Bérénice Marlohe As Sévérine
Raoul Silva’s associate and mistress Sévérine only serves the plot of Skyfall with her death. Bond tracks her down and seduces her, she leads him to Silva, and then Silva murders her.
As a one-dimensional, sexualized character who exists entirely as a love interest before being killed, Sévérine has all the worst clichés of a “Bond girl.” Bérénice Marlohe couldn’t do much with the character because she’s so thinly drawn in the script.
Gemma Arterton As Strawberry Fields
While the female lead in Quantum of Solace is a gun-toting secret agent who kicks just as much butt as 007 himself, the secondary female lead – Gemma Arterton’s MI6 agent Strawberry Fields, assigned to the British consulate in Bolivia – is yet another clichéd, sexualized “Bond girl” archetype.
When she first meets Bond, she tries to overpower him. And then, of course, he ends up seducing her. The character is somewhat elevated by Arterton’s movie-star screen presence, but it’s a one-note role whose name is her most interesting trait.
Monica Bellucci As Lucia Sciarra
At the age of 50, Monica Bellucci became the oldest actor to be cast as a “Bond girl” with her role in Spectre. She plays Lucia Sciarra, the wife of assassin Marco Sciarra who – surprise, surprise – gets seduced by Bond.
Renowned for playing Persephone in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Bellucci was the perfect casting choice for a “Bond girl.” But this stereotypical role doesn’t give her a lot to do.
Olga Kurylenko As Camille Montes
Olga Kurylenko plays the main “Bond girl” in Quantum of Solace. Camille Montes is a Bolivian agent with her own personal vendetta against the villainous Dominic Greene. While the movie itself was criticized, its “Bond girl” is praised as one of the best.
She’s every bit the hard-working secret agent that Bond is, shown to be an efficient fighter in the action scenes. Like Michelle Yeoh’s badass spy in Tomorrow Never Dies, Camille isn’t a love interest who needs Bond to get her out of trouble; she’s an action hero in her own right.
Ana De Armas As Paloma
The marketing for No Time to Die teased that Knives Out, would have a much larger role in the film than she ultimately did. Her CIA agent character Paloma only appears in one set-piece, helping Bond to infiltrate Blofeld’s birthday party in Cuba.
But de Armas’ turn in the role is so hilarious and lovable that Paloma is memorable despite her brief appearance. She claims to only have a few weeks’ worth of training under her belt and makes more than enough reckless decisions to prove it.
Naomie Harris As Eve Moneypenny
Moneypenny is one of the most problematic female characters in the Bond mythos. She’s usually portrayed as M’s secretary, constantly flirting with 007. In the Craig continuity, Moneypenny was mercifully recharacterized as a field agent and included in the action.
This version of the character is still just as enamored with Bond and sleeps with him at the first opportunity, but Naomie Harris’ typically awesome performance goes a long way. She plays Moneypenny as a fierce badass, but also brings a vulnerability to scenes like her accidental shooting of Bond.
Léa Seydoux As Dr. Madeleine Swann
Most “Bond girls” only appear in one movie. Léa Seydoux became one of the few love interests to return for a second movie when she reprised her Spectre role as Dr. Madeleine Swann in No Time to Die. Dr. Swann is a psychiatrist, so she can read Bond’s typically elusive emotional cues, and she has a crucial role in the larger universe as the daughter of Mr. White.
Seydoux shared a laundry list of emotionally engaging moments with Craig’s Bond: falling in love with him, being abandoned after he mistakenly believes she betrayed him, reuniting with him years later, introducing him to his estranged daughter, and saying one last goodbye to him before he’s wiped out by nuclear weapons.
Eva Green As Vesper Lynd
It’s rare that Bond falls in love. George Lazenby was the first 007 to find a soulmate when he married Tracy Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but in the final drive-by shooting, that romance ended in tragedy. In Casino Royale, Bond similarly falls in love (and she similarly dies tragically in the final act).
Eva Green plays Vesper Lynd as a classical femme fatale, with a real air of mystery. Bond is never 100% sure he can trust her, but he’s so infatuated with her that he quits MI6 just to spend more time with her.
Lashana Lynch As Nomi
During the five-year time jump after Bond retires from MI6 duty in No Time to Die, Lashana Lynch’s Nomi takes over his 007 codename. Nomi isn’t just shallowly characterized as a female version of Bond; she’s rounded out as her own character with her own strengths and insecurities.
Lynch knocks the role out of the park. She’s convincingly tough-as-nails in the action scenes and nails the comic timing of every quippy one-liner, but she’s also nuanced and human. She develops a great on-screen dynamic with Craig. Instead of being a traditional love interest like the average “Bond girl,” Nomi is more of a sidekick and they have a biting “buddy cop” back-and-forth.
