Daniel Craig’s hyper-masculinity as Bond is a beautiful shield.
It’s much noted that Bond wears his debonair demeanor like armor.
One thrilling scene in Skyfall (2012) that gets an audible audience gasp occurs when Javier Barden takes a slow, seductive walk toward Bond, who is tied to a chair. Bardem begins to caress Bond’s thigh and queries:
“Well, first time for everything, I guess.”
Without missing a beat, Bond responds:
“What makes you think this is my first?”
Bond’s bravado complicates our image of him as a heteronormative womanizer. In fact, this straight-laced image of Bond was one of Craig's core fears in taking the role:
“There’s kind of a rigidity to it... Some of my friends told me I'd never be able to do anything else. What if I wanted to go off and do Gay Bikers on Acid – how would Sony feel about that?!”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Industry to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.