Bond isn't bi. At least that's what I took away from Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem's separate but equally vague responses to the erotically charged scene they share in Skyfall. On Monday, the actors took part in separate press conferences to promote the latest installment of the Bond franchise and, in both cases, questions about sexuality arose.
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In a piece I posted earlier this morning offering my early reaction to the picture, I noted that in the scene where Bond and the villain Silva meet, the latter caresses the bound MI6 agent's chest. In response to Silva's attentions, 007 replies, "What makes you think this is my first time?"
Since there's been speculation on the web for a years now now about whether Bond will ever pump more than hot lead into another man, I asked Craig at the press conference if his character was bluffing when he used this line with Bardem's Silva.
"What are you going to do?" Craig replied breezily, getting a nice laugh from the crowd, but then he added: "I don't see the world in sexual divisions." He then changed the subject from Bond to to Bardem's wonderfully flamboyant character, Silva. "Someone suggested that Silva may be gay," Craig said with a big smile. "And I'm like, I think he'll f*** anything."
As Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson sat silently onstage with Craig, the actor, natty in a form-hugging suit and skinny tie, then downplayed the scene as "a great flirt. It's a game of cards," adding: "It the right thing to say, and that way that Javier plays it is so great. He plays it for real, and he plays it to the limit. He never forgets that he's playing a Bond villain."
Finally, Craig offered his final assessment: "I love that scene," he said "It makes me laugh. I hope it makes you laugh."
Earlier in the day, Bardem dropped some hints about his character that may shed a little more light on the scene. Asked how Silva's "sexuality informed [Bardem's] interpretation of the character, the actor responded; "It was part of the game, but it’s not entirely the game." Bardem explained that his "main goal" as Silva was creating "uncomfortable situations" for anyone who crossed his path. "Within that, you can read anything that you want or wish," Bardem said. "But it was more about putting the other person in a very uncomfortable situation where even James Bond doesn't know how to get out of it."
In other words, that scene between Bond and Silva isn't about sex. It's about power. Right?
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