It’s Bond, James Bond Week here at For The Win, where we’ve shaken (not stirred) five days’ worth of content to celebrate the premiere of the iconic franchise’s 25th movie, No Time to Die.
Lashana Lynch wanted to make her No Time to Die character her own and relatable — even if a 007 agent with a license to kill is anything but. The actress stars as Nomi, James Bond’s 007 replacement in MI6 who has to work with Daniel Craig’s recently retired charming but complicated sometimes brusque character to save the world from Rami Malek’s chilling villain, Lyutsifer Safin.
Ahead of the movie’s theatrical debut in the U.S. on Friday, For The Win sat down (virtually) with 33-year-old Lynch — who MCU fans will recognize from Captain Marvel — to talk about what she wanted for her No Time to Die character, highlights on set and doing her own stunts. (No spoilers!)
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
What was it like to play 007? And you did your own stunts, right?
I did do my own stunts, and I’m really, really proud of that, actually. You don’t often get the chance to be able to even use your body for a movie, so getting straight stuck in with that, that was the first thing that I did. I think, I want to say three days after I was cast, I was in the stunt room. And I lived in there practically because even on my days off, I would be in there training, just trying to get as strong as possible.
And so yeah, I’m glad to have that foundation now. And they really set me up to be like “00 best of all time” type of thing. They gave me lifelong ninja training that is gonna stand me in good stead for, I think, the rest of my career. So very grateful.
How would you describe who Nomi is? What did you want her to be, and do you think that the film was able to live up to that?
That’s a really good question. I wanted Nomi to be the most relatable melanated women on screen. That was literally my aim. I wanted young Black girls to be able to see a future version of themselves that is already attainable through someone like Naomi on screen and in cinema history. And I wanted to give my child self a slice of what I didn’t get in being influenced and inspired by a woman on screen that makes sense.
And I wanted her to be authentic and real and funny and witty and strong and all of the things. But I also wanted her to just be figuring it out during the film, and seeing her figure it out really leads to the question of where Black women’s strength comes from, which is important to me.
So they did it. They did it well, they did it very well. And it was great to be able to step in those shoes and tell the story.
Do you have a favorite scene or moment from No Time to Die?
It’s hard to pinpoint one. But our first day was that day where Bond and Nomi have the first real meeting, and that was in Jamaica. I’m Jamaican, my mum was there. We were celebrating just bringing my work and my culture together and creating history. So that was amazing.
But also, it’s such a big scene that I never anticipated, being my first day on set. But it was amazing to be able to just get straight in, not having to deal with any of the stunts and stuff. We were just talking and seeing these two very intricate, nuanced characters come to life. It was very exciting for me.
Daniel Craig on his ‘complicated’ James Bond and the character’s finale in ‘No Time to Die’