No Time to Die star Lashana Lynch faced 'attacks' and 'abuse' over 007 role

Lashana Lynch is speaking out about the "abuse" and "attacks" she received after she was cast as the new 007 in the upcoming No Time to Die.

In July 2019, Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that Lynch's character, an agent called Nomi, would be given James Bond's license to kill and Lynch reveals she was subjected to attacks on social media in the wake of the news.

"I am one Black woman — if it were another Black woman cast in the role, it would have been the same conversation, she would have got the same attacks, the same abuse," Lynch tells the poet Yrsa Daley-Ward in an interview for Harper's Bazaar UK. "I just have to remind myself that the conversation is happening and that I’m a part of something that will be very, very revolutionary."

The Harper's Bazaar article also seems to confirm that Nomi will inherit the 007 title while Daniel Craig's superspy is in exile. In the piece, Lynch also talks about her determination that Nomi be a character Black audiences connect to.

"A character that is too slick, a cast-iron figure? That’s completely against what I stand for," she says. "I didn’t want to waste an opportunity when it came to what Nomi might represent. I searched for at least one moment in the script where Black audience members would nod their heads, tutting at the reality but glad to see their real life represented. In every project I am part of, no matter the budget or genre, the Black experience that I’m presenting needs to be 100 per cent authentic."

In his latest adventure, Bond is lured back into the spy game by his old CIA pal Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who asks him for help in rescuing a kidnapped scientist (David Dencik, from Top of the Lake). This leads Bond to Cuba and onto the trail of Rami Malek’s mysterious and villainous Safin. The film's cast also includes Ana de Armas, Lea Seydoux, and Christoph Waltz.

No Time to Die will be released April 2.

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