LAshana Lynch: Anyone can be James Bond

Lashana Lynch has insisted anyone could play James Bond, regardless of age or gender.

The 33-year-old actress – who will portray MI6 agent Nomi in the upcoming next instalment of the franchise, ‘No Time To Die’ – believes audiences would still “flock to the cinema” to see the movies, no matter who takes over from Daniel Craig as the suave spy.

She said: “We are in a place in time where the industry is not just giving audiences what it thinks the audience wants.

“They’re actually giving the audience what they want to give the audience.

“ With Bond, it could be a man or woman. They could be white, black, Asian, mixed race. They could be young or old.

“At the end of the day, even if a two-year-old was playing Bond, everyone would flock to the cinema to see what this two-year-old’s gonna do, no?”

Lashana’s character is rumoured to inherit Bond’s 007 designation, but she insisted she isn’t the next James Bond.

She laughed to Observer magazine: “I’d just be like, ‘Erm, right, so where do you start again?’ ”

The actress was overjoyed to work with Phoebe Waller-Bridge to create her character, who she promised is “very highly skilled” but also relatable.

She said: “When I told Phoebe who I wanted Nomi to be, it wasn’t a conversation. She just said, ‘That’s exactly what I thought, fab, OK, let’s do it.’

“I said, I want her to be a real woman, but I don’t want her work to make her masculine. She’s not slick. She has it together, she’s highly competent and very highly skilled, but she’s a real human being and sometimes she’s awkward.

“And that’s what is so clever about Phoebe’s writing. Once we’d had a conversation about her possibly being awkward, there were some moments that I read that were just like, ‘Oh no, is she really going to say that in the scene? I’m so here for it!’”