Chris Hemsworth is known for playing Thor in the Marvel movies, and with the next installment of Thor coming out soon, he’s going to get a lot of press. As a result, I urge you to resist the urge to facepalm too hard at what is about to follow. After all, we have weeks and weeks of Hemsworth having the opportunity to double down on this. Plus, facepalming too much could cause a concussion.
You see, Hemsworth thinks the next James Bond should be a woman.
Can Agent 007 be a woman? Chris Hemsworth sure thinks so — and he has a particular actress in mind: his Snow White and the Huntsman co-star Charlize Theron.
“She embodies every sort of ounce of strength and nobility and dignity and integrity that that character should have,” the actor told W Magazine. “She’s smart as hell. She’s physically able…Watching her in those fight scenes, doing it in high heels, by the way, and an eight-foot long gown was even more impressive.”
I’m a huge Charlize Theron fan, and I believe she can play just about any role she wants to. However, I have a serious problem with the idea of 007 being a woman.
You see, while I defended the idea of “Doctor Who” being a woman, there were story reasons that allowed it easily enough. After all, the Doctor was never really a man as we understood it, so why not?
But Bond? The name is Bond, James Bond. Not Jane or Jamie or Josephine. James.
In other words, it’s a character made for a male actor. Period.
The only way this can remotely work is if you accept a fan theory that the name “James Bond” is a code name, an identity the agent uses while working with MI-6, and that’s why each Bond incarnation is a little different. It’s a fun hypothesis, but it’s just something someone came up with to explain away the different actors taking on the role. It has nothing to do with anything Ian Fleming wrote about the dashing British secret agent.
In other words, the theory has no bearing on reality, and that means Hemsworth’s comments are just another case of an actor virtue signaling. After all, it’s fine to cast women in male roles, but not the reverse. It’s fine to scream “cultural appropriation” when a white actor is cast in a role that should supposedly go to a minority, but you’re a filthy racist if you expect turnabout to be fair play. All Hemsworth is doing here is showing how he agrees by proposing a female lead for a well-known male role.
Besides, with Atomic Blonde coming out later this week, Theron may have her own spy franchise to deal with.
As one female friend of mine said regarding the comment, “At least Chris is pretty.”
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