Craig repays the compliment, crediting Campbell with galvanizing the cast and crew and even more importantly, translating the electricity on the set to excitement on the big screen. “Martin fires everyone up. You obviously need that level of energy in the action sequences, but it’s equally valuable in quieter, dramatic scenes like the poker tournament.”
After an extensive search, the filmmakers offered French actress Eva Green the role of Vesper Lynd, the alluring and enigmatic beauty who steals the heart of the seemingly impermeable James Bond.
“The relationship between Vesper and Bond is the spine of the story, and we needed an actress who could hold her own against Bond,” says Campbell. “There is no doubt that this is the best female role in all of Fleming’s books, so we tested extensively to ensure we cast the most suitable actress. Eva has all the qualities we were after: She’s a terrific actress, she’s gorgeous and she has an air of mystery about her, which is essential for the role of Vesper. Eva worked incredibly hard to create this role and take it to places I hadn’t read into the script. It’s been a joy to see her work and expand the character.”
The Parisian-born Green, who made her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci’s steamy 2003 drama The Dreamers, explains what attracted her to the role of Vesper, the first woman Bond falls for and by whom he ultimately feels betrayed: “It’s one of the best scripts I’ve read in a long time. It’s deep, with lots of twists and turns, and the love story moved me. Vesper is a complex person. She is full of secrets, and I think that is why James Bond is attracted to her, because he can’t really see through her. She is like a Sphinx. She has many layers: she’s sharp, sassy, quick-witted, but also vulnerable. She and Bond spark off each other, they are always bantering and they understand each other on the surface.
“Vesper is not the classic, iconic Bond girl, wearing a bikini, being sexy and firing guns,” continues Green. “There is more to her than that. She is the first woman Ian Fleming wrote about, and she has a great impact on Bond’s life. She is the root of all the Bond women who follow and explains why he behaves the way he does with those women.”
“Hypnotic and magnetic” are the words Green uses to describe her co-star, Craig. “He’s a gentleman and he’s strong, and he’s not mannered. That ruggedness is attractive and probably quite dangerous. He is sexy and not self-conscious, which is very important for a man, and he has a sense of humor – another plus. I definitely feel there’s chemistry between us on screen.”
Green also shares the screen with famed Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini, who plays Mathis, a grizzled MI6 operative stationed in Montenegro. “Giancarlo is very crazy in a nice way, very charismatic,” she observes. “He is relaxed about his work and often had a wicked glint in his eyes that made it hard to keep a straight face during our scenes.”
Although she was not involved in many of the film’s elaborate action sequences, Green learned to scuba dive for her final scene, where she becomes trapped underwater in a fallen elevator cage inside a dilapidated Venetian palazzo. “I had to learn how to control my breathing underwater,” says Green. “In the beginning it was scary, although of course it is perfectly safe because there are so many people looking after you. Also, I’m nearsighted, so I couldn’t really see what was going on. I rehearsed in clear water, but during the takes the water had to be murky, like the Grand Canal. I think they used broccoli to get the right color!”
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