James Bond criticised for ‘outdated’ and ‘old fashioned’ portrayal of villains | Films | Entertainment


The latest Bond film, No Time To Die, finally opens in cinemas this week after being delayed three times due to the pandemic. Daniel Craig’s fifth and final Bond instalment also stars Rami Malek as a villain with visible scarring and facial disfigurements.

Campaigners from charity Changing Faces have urged producers to stop only portraying villains with deformities.

In an open letter to producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, campaigners said: “As a group of volunteer campaigners with disfigurements and visible differences, the release of No Time To Die fills us with dread.

“Once again, the villains are marked out by the scars on their faces, a physical disfigurement, an impairment. It’s a trope, it’s old fashioned and it’s outdated. And it has an impact.

“So, for the next Bond movie, let’s have a character – the hero, the strong side kick or intelligent love interest, who also happens to have a visible difference. Because we are not just your villains.”

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Actor Adam Pearson, star of 2013 film Under the Skin, has also hit out at the on-screen depiction. He said: “When the only character with a scar or disfigurement is shown on screen as the villain, it is perpetuating the use of an old-fashioned and outdated trope.

“There is absolutely no reason why someone with a visible difference can’t play the love interest or the hero.”

‘No Time To Die’ premieres tonight in London and hits cinemas on Thursday.



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