Veteran English actor Roger Moore has said that as far as he’s concerned, James Bond could never be portrayed as a woman or a gay man.
Moore who played the role of Bond seven times in all, from 1973’s ‘Live And Let Die’ to ‘A View To A Kill’ in 1985 said that it’s simply not the way that writer Ian Fleming penned the character, and issues of political correctness should not enter into it.
“I have heard people talk about how there should be a lady Bond or a gay Bond,” he told the Mail on Sunday.
“But they wouldn’t be Bond for the simple reason that wasn’t what Ian Fleming wrote. It is not about being homophobic or, for that matter, racist – it is simply about being true to the character.”
Moore also spoke about villains in the Bond movies increasingly being of unidentified origin, in order to avoid offence.
“There is a danger always of causing offence. I suppose you could just about get away with a villain from Burkina Faso, but that’s about it,” he added.
Moore last hit the news after he was quoted in French magazine Paris Match as saying that Idris Elba could never play Bond because he was not ‘English-English’.
“A few years ago, I said that Cuba Gooding Jr would make an excellent Bond, but it was a joke! Although James may have been played by a Scot, a Welshman and an Irishman, I think he should be ‘English-English. Nevertheless, [Elba as Bond is] an interesting idea, but unrealistic.”
However, he’s since said that he was misquoted.
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