Eva Green

Spotlight By: Benjamin Lee BenjaminLee@TheCinemaSource.com

For a young actress, playing a Bond girl is a role that many would give their right everything for. When Casino Royale was put into pre-production, rumors started spreading that Angelina Jolie and Rachel Mcadams were up for the part but as with the choice of Bond, the producers went for a smaller, European performer.

Eva Green is a French actress best known before Bond for her roles in the Bernado Bertolucci drama The Dreamers and the Ridley Scott epic Kingdom Of Heaven. She plays Vesper Lynd, a feisty love interest for Bond who has ulterior motives. She was a surprise, low-key choice yet through all of the speculation, 26-year-old Green admits she wasn’t giving it much thought.

‘I wasn’t really paying attention’ Green admits ‘I was approached last minute, I did the screen test and I got the part. I never understood why they were interested in me. I’m not a name star’. It was a role that Green was unsure she would even take in the first place. ‘I really had some reservations about it. I didn’t want to be a “Bond Girl”, I mean what does that mean?’ Green asks ‘It means a girl in a bikini. When I read the script I was very surprised. It was very unusual and very complex’.

The bad publicity surrounding the choice of Daniel Craig as Bond was something which Green only discovered when on set. But she believes he makes a perfect Bond. ‘He’s intense and magnetic and he plays (from) his guts’ Green states ‘He’s a man, rugged and cool. A lot of people have now seen the movie and think he’s an amazing actor’.

When it came down to chemistry, Green admits it wasn’t carefully planned. ‘We didn’t have time to rehearse. It was more based on instinct and being spontaneous. It was always easy to act with him but you never know because you can’t see

yourself’. Seeing herself isn’t something Green was a fan of. ‘It’s not my favorite thing. I’m afraid of being disappointed. I saw it with some people in the room and a glass of wine!’.

A native of France, schooled in England, Green speaks with an upper-class English accent yet still the studio were worried about her English. ‘I worked a lot on my English for this movie’ Green says ‘The studio was a bit worried that I would sound too French. There was a lot of work with the dialect coach. Now my big challenge is an American accent’. Green is actually the 5th French actress to have played a Bond girl, following in the footsteps of Sophie Marceau who starred in The World Is Not Enough.

Green draws inspiration from her actress mother, who helped her as she prepared for Casino Royale. ‘I worked with my mother, she’s an actress and she helped to give me ideas’ Green says ‘Although she hasn’t seen it yet. I hope she’ll be proud’.

For Eva Green, after such an iconic role, the fear is being typecast. ‘I hope not’ Green stresses ‘I’m sure a lot of people will still call me a Bond girl or the sexy Eva Green. It’s so narrow-minded and I hope people will see beyond that’. And after such a big-budget movie Green is keen to return to her roots. ‘I would love to do something very independent’.

Life will change for Green after Casino Royale, her profile now in the public eye like never before. ‘My parents called and were like Oh my God you’re in this magazine!’ Green says ‘But I don’t really pay attention. For me, the worst part of being a Bond girl is all this publicity. I’ve always been very shy and reserved’. In The Dreamers Green notoriously appeared nude on numerous occasions, something she is sure will be digged up now her proifle has been raised. ‘I’m sure they’re gonna

have some pictures in dirty magazines from The Dreamers‘ Green worries ‘It makes me look like a porn actress’.

Green believes that Vesper Lynd is a unique Bond girl. ‘A human being, not a Barbie’ Green admits and with her glamorous image yet stage background Green is intent on becoming the same. She recently turned down a role in The Black Dahlia but despite her search for an independent follow-up Green can next be seen alongside Daniel Craig again in the upcoming big-budget fantasy The Golden Compass. Titled the sexiest Bond girl ever by GQ and appearing scantily clad in glossy photo shoots, Green ‘hates’ publicity. Poor poor well-paid pretty Bond girl.