BRITISH ACTRESS Naomie Harris has opened up about not “living up” to the label ‘beautiful’ and refusing to strip off on the screen.
The self-proclaimed feminist is currently starring in the last James Bond movie, Spectre as Miss Moneypenny.
Speaking to Town & Country magazine about refusing to disrobe, she said: “I don’t feel it’s part of my job, I don’t like this sexualisation and objectification. It’s not what I’m about at all.”
And according to the Bond star, it’s still possible to be a feminist in the world of 007.
She continued: “I was never going to play stereotyped roles, and I was always going to show women, and particularly black women, in a positive light. I’m a feminist, and it’s very important to me to reflect that.
Director Sam Mendes talked to me about his vision for Moneypenny and how he wanted her to be completely modernised, really different, a woman who women in the audience could identify with and admire.
“That’s precisely the type of role I love to play. So I was really excited about it.”
Admitting she didn’t think she could play a stereotypically ‘beautiful’ Bond girl, she continued: “I always associated them with being very sexual and sensual, and that’s not what I associate with myself.
“I’m really uncomfortable when the label of ‘beautiful’ is put on a character. It makes me feel I can’t live up to it, somehow.”
Harris, who plays the secretary to the Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), also spoke about the public reaction to her playing the first ever black Moneypenny.
She said: “I think I was very lucky that it was never revealed I was Moneypenny until the movie was already out. People didn’t have a chance to say, ‘Oh no, we don’t want a black Moneypenny,’ because they didn’t know she was coming.
“And when they saw the film, they thought, hopefully, ‘OK, we can live with her.’ So there were no objections, which I’m really happy about.”
Source: http://www.voice-online.co.uk
Author: Chief Editor
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