Daniel Craig at the world premiere of No Time to Die with his female co-stars, Lashana Lynch, left, and Léa Seydoux. Photo / Getty Images
James Bond - licensed to kill, drink martinis and bed women who are significantly younger than him.
Much noise has been made over the years about the evolution of the Bond series' female characters and of James Bond's treatment of them. They are, the producers insist, no longer "window dressing" but strong women who are treated with respect by a character known for deploying sexual innuendo at the drop of a hat.
While out promoting the latest 007 film, series producer Barbara Broccoli said: "Bond's been evolving along with all the other men in the world. Some have just gotten there more quickly than others."
Indeed, in No Time to Die, Daniel Craig's 007 is in a mature relationship and shares much screen time with a no-nonsense 00 agent played by acclaimed black British actress Lashana Lynch.
But the New Zealand Herald's analysis of the actors and actresses in every James Bond film shows the 60-year-old spy series still has a definite problem when it comes to casting its female characters: their ages.
The Herald found that Bond film-makers still choose to pair their headline star with much younger actresses, in some cases 20 to 30 years younger.
For each of the 25 official 007 films, plus one unofficial one, the Herald examined the ages of all cast members at the time of the film's release. The analysis showed that male actors skewed older, with an average age of 48, while female actresses skewed younger, with an average age of 35.
However, the average age of the main female cast members in the series (i.e. those with significant screen time) was 32, 12 years younger than the average age of the actors playing Bond.
The analysis also highlights problems when it comes to the casting of the actresses who play Bond's love interests (defined as those he beds or tries to bed). The average age gap between Bond and his "Bond girls" across the series is 14 years - much more than the average age gap of two to three years between men and women in sexual relationships in Western countries.
The analysis found that the age gap was widest during the era when Roger Moore was 007 (when producers cast an actress 30-years younger than Moore to be his co-lead and love interest in one of his films) but it is still evident during the Daniel Craig Bond films.
In No Time to Die, the age difference between Craig and his female co-star and love interest, Léa Seydoux, is 17-years, with Craig turning 53 the year of the film's release and Seydoux, 36.
There's a big age gap between Craig and the film's other main female cast members, too: Naomie Harris, who plays Moneypenny, is eight years younger than Craig; Lynch is 19-years younger; and Ana de Armas, who plays a CIA agent, is 20 years younger.
The age gap is there in Craig's other Bond films: Eva Green, his co-star in Casino Royale, is 12 years younger than Craig, while Gemma Arterton, who appeared as an agent and love interest in Quantum of Solace, is 18 years younger than Craig.
To be fair to Craig and his Bond producers, the main female protagonist in Skyfall, the series' biggest-grossing entry, is 34 years older than Craig. Judi Dench was 78 when she made her final appearance as M in the 2012 Oscar-nominated film, and has more screen time with Craig than the actor playing the film's main villain.
The Craig-era films also feature the series' oldest love interest. Monica Bellucci was 51 when she starred in Spectre in 2015. Still, she was only four years older than Daniel Craig in that film and only appeared on-screen fleetingly before Craig's Bond moved onto Seydoux's character.
Bond isn't the only high-profile Hollywood franchise to have a blind spot when it comes to casting actresses that are as old as their male co-stars. Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible film series suffers from the same problem. In fact, Cruise's ever-increasing age gap with his female co-stars in all his movies since he turned 40 was put under the spotlight in 2017. Not much has changed since, with Cruise's latest female co-star in the upcoming Mission Impossible Seven 20 years younger than him.
What makes Bond an ideal case study is that the series spans 60 years and reflects to a large degree the changes in society and in Hollywood over that time period.
One of the core strengths of the series is its ability to refresh itself. Most Bond movies are standalone adventures and the producers have for the most part successfully updated the movies with each change of the lead actor. But the films are still beholden to the same formulas that were set in the 1960s: exotic locales, beautiful women, smart gadgets and fast cars and plots to end the world that only 007 can foil.
That a wide age gap still exists between Bond's lead female actresses and the actor playing 007 shows that the film-makers are unwilling to mess around with the formula and risk any upset to hugely expensive - and massively lucrative - movies.
The data shows that the age gap was the smallest in the early Bond movies. That's mostly the result of Sean Connery's relative youthfulness when he was the first cast in the role and the fact that his first run of Bond movies was made quite quickly - five within the space of six years.
The age gap was widest during the Roger Moore era largely as a result of Moore's age - he turned 46 the year his first Bond movie, Live and Let Die, came out. Moore was also in the role for 12-years and he turned 58 when he bowed out, with critics raising an eyebrow at his improbable age in their reviews of A View to a Kill.
Daniel Craig's longevity in the role is also a factor in the widening age gap in his 007 adventures. He was 38 when Casino Royale came out in 2006 and his character was already being referred to as over the hill and out of date by his third movie. Craig's Bond movies also made big bucks - Skyfall was the first Bond to make more than $1 billion at the global box office - and we're critically acclaimed, two very strong motivating factors for keeping Craig in the role as long as possible.
With Craig having left the role, Bond's producers will be able to reset the franchise and the lead actor's age. It also gives them a chance to close the gap.
The analysis covers the ages of the six actors who have played Bond and the 373 actors and actresses who are credited in the opening titles of the 25 official Bond films, produced by Eon, and the one unofficial Bond that starred Sean Connery, Never Say Never Again (1983).
Click here to get the full data.
The date of birth could not be found for 12 of those listed in the titles. Bond's leading female co-stars are defined as someone who appears on screen for a significant amount of time and/or makes a significant contribution to the plot and has prominent billing in the opening credits.
This is why Lois Maxwell, Caroline Bliss and Samantha Bond, who each played Miss Moneypenny, are not counted in that data set as each actress's appearance amounts to a cameo at best. However, the data set for the lead female co-star does include Naomie Harris for her role as Eve Moneypenny in Skyfall because she is top-billed and has a significant impact on the plot.
It is the same reason why we have included Judi Dench for her role as M in the same film, but not the others she appeared in. The date of birth for each actor and actress is sourced from the movie data site Imdb.com. Because shooting dates for each film are hard to pin down, we have opted to cite the age that cast members turned the year their film was released.
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