Angelina Jolie’s desire to play James Bond instead of a Bond Girl has been revealed in a 2010 interview. Jolie was offered the role of Vesper Lynd in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, but she turned it down because she wanted to play the iconic spy himself. Jolie had said to co-chairman of Sony Pictures, Amy Pascal, “No, I’m not comfortable with that, but I would like to play Bond.”
Jolie later received the lead role in Salt, a film that was originally written with a male actor in mind, but Tom Cruise declined the role. The character was then changed from Edwin to Edwina and Jolie played the role of a C.I.A. agent. However, changing the character’s gender was not an easy task, as Jolie explained, “You think it would be easy [to change]. You just flip the character from Edwin to Edwina. But it was a lot trickier than we thought.”
Jolie also discussed in the interview how being made fun of for being a Bond Girl impacted her. Despite this, Jolie has always been clear about the characters she wants to play and has never been content with the opportunities presented to her.
