Roger Moore: James Bond Can’t Be Gay Or A Woman
The former 007 star says the iconic fictional British spy should never be written into a script as gay or as a woman.Â
Many beloved franchises have been rebooted by changing the original characters. One of the lead male roles from the 1970’s TV series Battlestar Galactica, the cigar-smoking, gambling, fearless Starbuck, was re-written into an updated show in 2003 as a cigar-smoking, gambling, fearless female Starbuck. In the Ian Fleming original 007 novel Goldfinger, the female lead of Pussy Galore was originally a lesbian, but in the big screen 1964 James Bond film starring Sean Connery she’s straight.
Don’t tell iconic former James Bond actor Roger Moore.
The now 88-year old star of seven James Bond films says his character should never be written to be a gay man, or to be a woman.
“I have heard people talk about how there should be a lady Bond or a gay Bond. But they wouldn’t be Bond for the simple reason that wasn’t what Ian Fleming wrote,” the London Daily Mail reports. Clearly, Moore never read the book version of Goldfinger.
Moore “said ‘political correctness’ should not be pandered to, insisting: ‘It is not about being homophobic or, for that matter, racist – it is simply about being true to the character.’”
Recently, Moore found himself in hot water when he reporedly suggested actor Idris Elba, who is black and English, couldn’t play the role either.
“Although James may have been played by a Scot, a Welshman and an Irishman, I think he should be ‘English-English’. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting idea, but unrealistic.â€
Moore said later he was misquoted:
An interview I gave to Paris Match implies I said something racist about Idris Elba. That is simply untrue. #Lost in translation.
— Sir Roger Moore (@sirrogermoore) March 28, 2015
Current James Bond star Daniel Craig disagrees with Moore.
“Anything’s possible. You can do anything as long as it’s credible and it works.”
Image by Allan warren via Wikimedia and a CC license
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