Honor Blackman played one of the most memorable and tenacious Bond “girls” in all of 007’s history. Unsurprisingly, however, she hated the term “Bond girl”, for the way it seemed to denigrate the women behind some of the best characters in all the James Bond films. For Blackman, who died in 2020 at the age of 94, the use of this unfortunately common term seemed to suggest that Bond’s female counterparts were nothing more than “bimbos,” while her own turn in 1964’s “Goldfinger” is evidence to the contrary.
“Goldfinger” is still considered by many fans to be the quintessential 007 film. It introduced many of the tropes we think of when we think of James Bond and cemented the franchise’s position as one of the most popular in cinematic history. It also easily featured one of the best Bond “girls” to ever grace the saga in Blackman’s… well, P***y Galore, a character who, despite having one of the most blatantly sexist names of any female on the property, was also one of the most progressive female characters in the franchise.
For Blackman, referring to her or any of her fellow James Bond actresses as “Bond girls” was demeaning. “There was no Bond girl in my time,” as she explained in a 2012 interview with Britain’s Radio Times, “and being called one now drives me crazy! It makes us look like bimbos who fell flat on our faces the moment we caught a glimpse of Bond.” As she later pointed out, Miss Galore was nothing like the stereotypical image conjured up by the term “Bond Girl.” She was a “strong woman and a brilliant character,” which is exactly why Blackman wanted to play her.
Honor Blackman knew Miss Galore was as badass as Bond
Honor Blackman has always had a bittersweet relationship with Miss Galore. As she said in a 2001 interview (via the Radio Times), “The best [thing about playing the role] it’s that I became better known; The worst part is, that’s all I really remember. ” Still, it’s not like his career is over after “Goldfinger.” The former star of the popular British spy series “The Avengers” has appeared in numerous television, film and stage productions. Similarly, almost 30 years after her Bond debut, she played Laura West in the British sitcom The Upper Hand, which ran from 1990 to 1996. Throughout her career, however, she maintained her dislike of Bond. “girl” label.
In an interview with journalist Paul Kirkley, Blackman once again expressed his hatred for the term. “Well, they can call other people Bond girls, but I don’t like that,” she explained. “For the simple reason that this character would have been a good character in any film, not just a Bond film. I think of the Bond girls as those ladies who took one look at Bond and fell flat on their backs. Whereas P***y Galore was quite a character.”
Blackman couldn’t have been more right in this regard. The pilot who leads the all-female squadron “P***y Galore’s Flying Circus”, Galore was a match for Bond in every way. Despite the fact that England’s greatest spy ends up sleeping with the willing balloonist, she hardly swoons over him, leading to an uncomfortable exchange in which Connery’s Bond forces himself on Galore in a barn. But even after that, Bond needs his help to foil Auric Goldfinger’s (Gert Fröbe) plot, with Galore proving indispensable when it comes time to save the day.
Honor Blackman was one of many powerful women in the James Bond films
Despite all the accusations of sexism, the James Bond franchise has featured some terrific female characters. The film widely considered the worst in the James Bond film series, “Die Another Day,” featured at least one of the best female characters in 007 history in Halle Berry’s Jinx. The badass didn’t need Pierce Brosnan’s Bond to get the job done, and in that sense, it’s a real shame that Berry never got to star in his own James Bond spin-off. Yet with her one-time appearance, she continued a grand but all-too-uneven tradition of winning over women in cinema’s most enduring franchise that dates back to Ursula Andress’s Honey Ryder in 1962’s “Dr. No” and Daniela Bianchi’s Tatiana Romanova in the 1963 sequel, “From Russia With Love.”
By the time Honor Blackman came to play P***y Galore, she had been preceded by two other major female figures. But there was something about his character that seemed even more independent and powerful than his predecessors. In addition to resisting Bond’s charms from the start, she actually clashed with Sean Connery’s spy after catching him spying on Auric Goldfinger. Additionally, Blackman herself represented this same strong will during the film’s publicity. Faced with the shock of the American public regarding the name of her character, she adopted it. As she once noted in an interview (via The Hollywood Reporter), “I was pretty shocked that they were shocked. I was pretty taken aback. So, I used to quite deliberately say, ‘Oh, you mean P***y?’ And they were dying. »
