A hint in Skyfall that James Bond may have had a gay experience in the past was almost cut from the 2012 film, according to the franchise’s producer Barbara Broccoli.
The scene in question saw Daniel Craig’s 007 taken hostage by the movie’s villain, Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem.
Silva caresses Bond’s chest and thigh while the hero is bound to a chair, and says: “You’re trying to remember your training now. What’s the regulation to cover this? Well, first time for everything I guess.”
To which an unbothered Bond replies: “What makes you think this is my first time?”
Reflecting on the scene in new Apple TV+ documentary Being James Bond, Broccoli said: “I remember we were told to cut that line by the studio and we said, ‘No, no, no.’ We resisted.”
Broccoli said her determination to keep the scene was justified by the audience’s reaction to it at the film’s global premiere at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
“The night of the premiere, that line, just the whole place rocked it then… I remember looking at the studio executive [and] going, ‘See, told you,’” said Broccoli.
The film’s director, Sam Mendes, added: “I think there’s a huge homoerotic undertow in a lot of Bond movies.”
No Time to Die – the latest film in the franchise, and Craig’s last – will be released in UK cinemas on 30 September.
