Why Casino Royale's Vesper Lynd Was The Most Difficult Bond Girl To Cast
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Virtually nothing is as important to a "James Bond" movie as the actor playing 007. Some not-so-great movies in this franchise were elevated thanks to the actor in the lead role. See, Roger Moore's entire run as the character. But the Bond girl can be equally important. Such was the case with Eva Green as Vesper Lynd in "Casino Royale," quite arguably the greatest Bond Girl ever. While it's difficult to picture anyone else in the role now, Casting Vesper proved quite difficult.
Speaking with the Radio Times, longtime "James Bond" casting director Debbie McWilliams pulled the curtain back on the casting process for 2006's "Casino Royale." It's worth remembering that Daniel Craig's casting as Bond was controversial at the time. People didn't want a "blonde Bond." People were very concerned. Yet, Craig is now one of the most beloved actors to ever take on the role.
When it came to finding a Vesper to play off of Craig's Bond, controversy wasn't the issue. Rather, casting Bond's very intensive love interest was in part difficult because the whole Bond girl thing came with a certain stigma. "Prior to that film, there had been a sort of stigma around the 'Bond girl' role, and it was very hard to persuade serious actresses to even look at it," McWilliams explained. Speaking further, she revealed that there was pushback when Green's name came up:
"Eva [Green] had always been on the list, but there had been a certain resistance to her — I don't really know why, but I think they felt that maybe she didn't have enough experience. She'd only done a few films and they'd all been very underground, low-budget type of things, but working with someone like Barbara [Broccoli, producer on the Bond series], who has just such a fantastic instinct, we both really, really liked her."
Eva Green landed her Casino Royale gig even after a failed screen test
Up to that point, Green had but a few movie credits to her name, including "The Dreamers" and Ridley Scott's historical epic "Kingdom of Heaven." There's understandable hesitancy any time producers are dealing with relatively untested actors. Still, Green managed to get a screen test. The only problem? It went poorly. McWilliams detailed the whole thing.
"I'm sure she would be the first to admit she was terrible. Nobody had put her in hair and make-up and all the rest of it, so it didn't do her any justice whatsoever, and rather terrifyingly we started shooting 'Casino Royale' without having cast that part. In fact, we hadn't cast Le Chiffre [eventually played by Mads Mikkelsen] either."
Fortunately, they didn't leave it at that. "Both Barbara and I insisted that Eva came back and had another go — this time, she was in hair and make-up, and she was in wardrobe, and she felt much calmer about the whole thing, and so that's what sealed it," McWilliams revealed.
The result? "Casino Royale" is widely hailed as the greatest "James Bond" movie ever made. While director Martin Campbell, Craig, and Ian Fleming's source material are largely responsible for that, Green's portrayal of Vesper is a huge part of what makes the movie sing. She gave us a new kind of Bond girl and helped redefine what that could mean in the 21st century.