Who is the Bond Girl in Skyfall?

Question

In almost every James Bond movie, there is always one girl who is called 'the Bond Girl'. However, in Skyfall, who is the Bond Girl? Is it Eve Moneypenny (portrayed by Naomie Harris), or Séverine (portrayed by Bérénice Lim Marlohe)?

A snippet from Wikipedia says:

There are female characters such as Judi Dench's M and Camille Montes, who are not romantic interests of Bond, and hence not strictly Bond girls. However, it has been argued that M's pivotal role in the plot of Skyfall qualifies her as a Bond girl or Bond woman.

Answer 1

The biggest problem in answering this is understanding what is a Bond girl?

The wiki for "Bond girl" describes them as:

A Bond girl is a character (or the actress portraying a character) who is a love interest and/or female sidekick of James Bond in a novel, film, or video game

But again, what does this really mean?

In the reboot of the series, Vesper is a much more important love interest than any other character. In the "original" run of films, Teresa di Vicenzo is probably the most important, as she became his wife. They're both arguably more than just "bond girls".

However, how do we define his other love interests? Is it simply somebody Bond has slept with? Or somebody he has flirted with who has enough one on one screen time with Bond to provide a genuine potential for a romantic conquest?

If we side step these potential issues for a moment, there are four potential candidates in Skyfall:

"Bond's Lover" (Tonia Sotiropoulou)

The wiki identifies her as a bond girl, as do many news outlets. She does sleep with Bond and was involved in filming for five days.

However, she is a relatively tiny character in the film.

Séverine (Bérénice Marlohe)

Like "Bond's lover", she is identified as a Bond girl by a few news outlets as well as the wiki.

However, unlike "Bond's lover", she is an intrinsic part of the plot, as the femme fatale of the story. She has plenty of screen time, was used throughout the trailer and promotions for the film and seems the best "bet" for a Bond girl.

Eve Moneypenny

Moneypenny and Bond flirt throughout the film, with us only learning at the end that she is Moneypenny.

She certainly satisfies the screen time requirements for a Bond girl, and does flirt with Bond throughout. However, there is no actual sexual activity between them, which is usually a cornerstone of a Bond girl.

M

Whilst some have argued for M as a bond girl, I struggle to reconcile this. She is absolutely integral to the plot, which satisfies that requirement, but there is zero love interest in their relationship (instead, it is based on respect).

Although this relationship is fascinating, and is one of the cornerstones of the film, if she was the Bond girl she would be totally unique in the Bond world.

Conclusion

How do you define a Bond girl?

By standard definitions, Séverine seems the most likely, but there are arguments to be made for all four (and there is of course no limit to the number of Bond girls in a film).

Answer 2

Naomi Harris feels that she wasn't a "Bond girl" although she's not averse to calling herself a Bond-woman

Because your character’s an agent, do you consider yourself a Bond girl or is it a different category of “Woman in a Bond Film?”

Harris: Yeah, that’s interesting actually, that’s very interesting. I feel like a different category. I do, because she’s not there to wear slinky frocks and be sexy. She’s a capable woman out in the field. She’s not necessarily a match for Bond, as such, but her ambition is to be as skilled as him in the field. So I like the idea of it being a second category, yeah. - _{^{Collider Interview}}

---

Bérénice Marlohe, seems to have positively embraced the appelation, happily comparing herself with Bond girls from prior films

What did the notion of Bond girl mean to you before you were cast in “Skyfall” and what did it come to mean to you after playing one?

Bérénice Lim Marlohe: For me, when I thought about a Bond girl, what excited me is that mix of male attitude, power, danger, and a very glamorous, feminine figure or woman. And also, my point of view of that was to play with animals to create her because they are colorful, theatrical characters that are bigger than life, like any character in the Bond movies. I could sense that I would have a lot of freedom on set. And, after the experience, I was happy I could have in the script too those iconic scenes in the casino that you find a lot of times in the Bond movies. For me, they are very meaningful in the history of the James Bond movies so I was very happy to have a chance to get to be in one of them.

Naomie Harris: For me, I had very set ideas about what it meant to be a Bond girl. It’s about being sexy, being alluring, being beautiful, elegant, and that, for me, felt quite constraining because I don’t usually play roles like that. In fact, I don’t know what role I’ve played like that before, so I felt very confined and constricted by all those set ideals. But then, a friend of mine gave me a great piece of advice, which was just forget about all of that and imagine that you’re part of a low budget movie. You can do whatever you want with this role and just make it your own. And that, ultimately, is how I came to see Bond girls. I don’t think any more in terms of the Bond girl terminology. I think that we’re just women who are in Bond movies, and women now in Bond movies can be anything, so you’re totally free to create, and that’s what makes it an interesting role. - _{^{Moviesonline.ca interview}}

---

Tonia Sotiropoulou cheerfully identifies herself as a [Bond] Girl (03:25)

https://vimeo.com/54692344

"I have a very small part in the film. Basically the focus is a love scene between Bond and that girl"

---

Dame Judi Dench also refers to herself as a Bond-Woman in interviews and in her (auto)biography

I don’t think I realised at first what a huge responsibility I had in playing ‘M’, I was just really excited about it. Michael and Finty were mad about the idea too, Michael said, ‘Oh, brilliant – Bond-woman!’ The very first time that Pierce visited me at home, he stood in the doorway and said, ‘Hi, boss,’ and Finty did a very theatrical stagger back across the room. - _{^{And Furthermore}}

Answer 3

Skyfall would be the first Bond film where the lead female character is not a Bond girl. But how Eve, Severine and Bond's Lover's roles are in the movie can be easily identified when you look at the Bond formula.

Eve would be the lead Bond girl as she certainly have the most screen time. Her role is similar to Paula Caplan in Thunderball; as many identified her as a Bond girl even though Paula appears to only have a pure professional relationship with Bond; as well as fellow agents like Mary Goodnight, Manuela, Bianca and Kimberly Jones. Hell, the DVD notes played up Eve's part, saying Bond was "aided only by Agent Eve".

But in Eve's case, she would be a Bond girl in Skyfall's context. I wouldn't consider her to be one in Spectre. Madeleine would be her counterpart (lead) in Spectre. In Casino Royale, Vesper and in Quantum of Solace, Camille.

Severine's role is easy to figure out. She is the usual obligatory sacrificial lamb-secondary Bond girl who gets killed off a la Jill Masterson, Corinne Dufour, Naomi, Plenty O'Toole, Andrea Anders. Her counterpart in Spectre would be Lucia, who, like Magda and Lupe Lamora, for once, did not die. In Casino, her counterpart would be Solange, in Quantum, Strawberry Fields.

Bond's Lover is the tertiary Bond girl that Bond sleeps or flirts with before the main action of the film (Bianca and Kimberley Jones again, Ling, Inga Bergstrom, Log Cabin Girl, Marie, Sylvia Trench). Her counterpart in Spectre would be Estrella.