“I love that there’s a lot more female leads nowadays, I think that’s so special. But we should have our own,” Ortega said. “I don’t like it when it’s like a spinoff — I don’t want to see like ‘Jamie Bond.’ You know? I want to see another badass.”
Ana de Armas, who starred in “No Time to Die” opposite Craig, similarly told The Sun when the movie opened in theaters that Bond should remain a guy.
“There’s no need for a female Bond,” she said. “There shouldn’t be any need to steal someone else’s character, you know, to take over. This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he’s at.”
“What I would like is that the female roles in the Bond films, even though Bond will continue to be a man, are brought to life in a different way,” de Armas added. “That they’re given a more substantial part and recognition. That’s what I think is more interesting than flipping things.”
Daniel Craig himself told Radio Times on the topic: “The answer to that is very simple. There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”
Watch Ortega’s full interview with MTV in the video below.