Daniel Craig Doesn't Call the Women in James Bond Films 'Bond Girls'

Daniel Craig has an issue with the term ‘Bond girls.’

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Craig, 51, said he doesn’t call the female love interests in James Bond films ‘Bond girls,’ as they’ve been referred to for decades.

“I don’t even call them Bond girls,” he told the outlet. “I’m not going to deny it to anybody else. It’s just I can’t have a sensible conversation with somebody if we’re talking about ‘Bond girls.’”

Upon the release of the upcoming film, No Time to Die, the actor will have played James Bond a total of five times over 14 years, making him the longest serving 007 since the first Bond movie premiered in 1962. Craig first took on the role of Bond in Casino Royale (2006), going on to star in Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015).

Craig has said that the latest Bond movie, which also stars Oscar-winner Rami Malek and Ana de Armas (Knives Out) and features a song from Billie Eilish, will be his last. He told Esquire in November that “someone else needs to have a go” at the iconic role.

“This may be hard to believe,” Craig told The Sunday Times around the same time, “but I love the fact I’m Bond. We’re in rare air, making Bond movies. It is one of the most intense, fulfilling things I’ve ever done, but it takes a lot of energy and I’m getting old. I’m getting creaky.”

As for who will take over the role for Craig, a variety of names have been suggested throughout the years, including Robert Pattinson, Hugh Jackman and Idris Elba. Many, including former 007 Pierce Brosnan, have suggested a woman play Bond next.

“I think we’ve watched the guys do it for the last 40 years, get out of the way, guys, and put a woman up there,” Brosnan, who has called his time as James Bond his career highlight, told The Hollywood Reporter in September. “I think it would be exhilarating, it would be exciting.”

But despite a growing fan campaign to make the super spy more diverse by casting actors of color or women, a longtime producer of the hit series has shut down any chances of a lady Bond. Instead, Barbara Broccoli thinks women should get their own, better characters.

“He can be of any color, but he is male,” Broccoli told Variety in an interview released last month. “I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that.”

It’s worth noting that Broccoli acknowledges Bond can be of any race, since fans have been hoping for British hunk Idris Elba to be cast in the role for years now. Fellow producer Michael G. Wilson backed up Broccoli, who is his half-sister.

“You think of him as being from Britain or the Commonwealth, but Britain is a very diverse place,” Wilson said earlier in the interview.

No Time to Die hits theaters April 10.

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