Helen Mirren Says “You Can’t Have A Woman” As James Bond: “It Just Doesn’t Work”

Helen Mirren supports women, but she doesn’t think a woman should portray James Bond as the search for the next 007 agent is underway.

In a new interview while promoting Thursday Murder Club, in which she co-stars alongside former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan, Mirren said a woman as James Bond wouldn’t work.

“I’m such a feminist, but James Bond has to be a guy,” Mirren told Saga magazine. “You can’t have a woman. It just doesn’t work. James Bond has to be James Bond, otherwise it becomes something else.”

Deadline recently reported that Steven Knight would pen the script for the next James Bond film at Amazon MGM Studios, which Denis Villeneuve will direct.

Mirren’s Thursday Murder Club co-star, Brosnan, also weighed in on the 007 film, telling the same publication, “I wish them well. I’m so excited to see the next man come on the stage and to see a whole new exuberance and life for this character.”

“I adore the world of James Bond. It’s been very good to me. It’s the gift that keeps giving,” Brosnan continued. “And I’m just a member of the audience now, sitting back, saying: ‘Show us what you’re going to do.’”

Mirren had previously weighed in on the concept of James Bond, saying in an interview with The London Standard that the character “is drenched and born out of profound sexism.”

“Women have always been a major and incredibly important part of the Secret Service, they always have been. And very brave,” she added. “If you hear about what women did in the French Resistance, they’re amazingly, unbelievably courageous. So I would tell real stories about extraordinary women who’ve worked in that world.”