Five Bond Girls Least Likely to Be Bond Girls

Relative unknown Bérénice Marlohe could be latest in spy franchise's long line of unconventional picks

By Joal Ryan Sep 30, 2011 5:00 PMTags
Berenice Marlohe, Daniel CraigColumbia TriStar; NC

Reports, as yet unconfirmed, have it that Bérénice Marlohe will be your new Bond girl.

If you've only now just heard of the French actress, then what else is new? The spy franchise has a long history of going rogue and casting the unknown—if not the unlikely—as the yin to 007's considerable yang. 

Meet five other actresses whose Bond casting raised eyebrows:

1. Halle Berry: It's not as if Berry weren't qualified to be a Bond girl. (Exhibit A: The bikini scene.) It's that she seemed overqualified. At the time Berry signed on for Die Another Day, she was an established star who was on her way to an Oscar for Monster's Ball.

2. Gloria Hendry: Here's another Bond girl whose, um, qualifications were impeccable. The thing that made Hendry an unlikely pick for Live and Let Die is that up until the 1973 film, James Bond had never before bedded a black double agent. (On camera, anyway.)

3. Maud Adams: When she was cast in Octopussy, the Swedish-born model turned actress had two strikes against her: (1) She'd already been a Bond girl (in The Man With the Golden Gun) and (2) she was pushing 40. No Bond babe has ever been, how should we say...more mature.

4. Denise Richards: When you think nuclear physics, you think Denise Richards, right? We thought so. So, really, it absolutely made sense for Charlie Sheen's future wife (and ex-wife) to be asked to talk warheads in The World Is Not Enough. Oh, wait. It didn't. At all.  

5. Lois Chiles: The shock is not that this 1970s beauty was considered Bond-girl material—it's that producers could create a character called Dr. Goodhead and still find a legit actress to play her. Seriously, even Pussy Galore thinks that name's a bit much.