New to the game of espionage in No Time To Die is the character of Nomi, a fresh MI6 agent, who is played by the hugely talented actress Lashana Lynch, whom producer Barbara Broccoli had first worked with on ‘ear for eye’, at London’s Royal Court Theatre. Nomi enters the fray in the wake of Leiter’s meeting with Bond.
“She is strong, whip-sharp, witty, and brave,” Lynch says of her character. “She is playful, very cheeky, very sarcastic, and dry. I think she’s a nice match for Bond because he can be very serious, especially when he’s on a mission.”
Audiences have witnessed Bond work with other double-O agents in the past – who can forget the thrilling opening to 1995’s GoldenEye, for example. In No Time To Die, however, the two agents pool their skills as the film builds towards to its climactic moment, Nomi demonstrating both her physical and technical proficiency.
Lynch is the first 007 to be a woman of color. I asked her did she feel like that was a groundbreaking moment in cinema.
When I take any role or consider any role, I’m always thinking of my culture first that is just like a given for me. The people around me know that I’m not going to consider anything that is going to be compromising to the point where I feel like I’m not serving my culture in the best way, whether that be black brits, Jamaicans, Caribbean or whoever, and that’s what’s on the forefront of my mind. Two months down the line having the last audition with Daniel and being like, wow okay, so it is a Bond movie great now I know still don’t know her name, but I’m cool, so all the little surprises that we see and the greatness of Nomi that we see in the movie I learned along the way which was actually quite a nice um a nice experience for me a change.
No Time to Die will be released in theatres on October 8th, 2021.
Watch my full interview with Lashana Lynch below.