Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, co-writers of No Time To Die, reveal that Ana de Armas' character barely featured in their original draft. Purvis and Wade have writing credits on the last seven films in the James Bond franchise, surviving the transition from Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig, who just completed his run as the gentleman spy. No Time To Die was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and finally hit theaters last month, after having been the first major blockbuster to experience pandemic-related release delays.
While Craig's lead performance carried his final Bond movie to a general thumbs-up from critics and audiences alike, the film's early sequence in Santiago de Cuba was an obvious standout, in large part because of the presence of de Armas. Playing Paloma, a newly trained CIA operative charged with aiding the veteran Bond in his mission to infiltrate a SPECTRE gathering, de Armas brought a spark to the role that stuck in the minds of audiences despite her relatively short time on-screen. Her chemistry with Craig's 007 had fans wishing she was a more prominent character, and her deft handling of the action sequences signaled a possible future for her as a lead in the genre.
But, according to the longtime British writing duo who penned the original script for No Time To Die, the Cuban-Spanish actress almost never got the chance to shine. Purvis confirms to The Guardian that Paloma existed in their draft, but only as a contact for Bond, and he credits Fukunaga with pushing for her to become more involved in the mission. The result, Purvis says, is undeniably successful. Check out his quote below:
There’s no denying that what goes down very well with an audience is the whole Paloma sequence. We had Paloma in our script, but she was just a contact. Cary wanted more, so one assumes that’s an area that Phoebe dealt with.
Purvis references the well-publicized decision to bring Fleabag multi-hyphenate Phoebe Waller-Bridge onto No Time To Die's writing team, with her ultimately sharing credit for the screenplay with Purvis, Wade, and Fukunaga. While there has been debate over which aspects of the film bear her fingerprint, the longtime Bond writers essentially confirm that she at least deserves the praise for shaping Paloma, making her responsible for one of the movie's most acclaimed elements. Her co-writers are among those celebrating the Cuba sequence, with Wade calling it "really fun" and Purvis deeming it "very much like a Bond movie."
If Bond fans had any doubt as to the benefits of bringing in the talented Waller-Bridge, Purvis' comments should quash them. When the discourse around Paloma has skewed negative, it has been to criticize No Time To Die for not giving her enough screen time, but knowing that the part was initially much smaller should make viewers more appreciative of what they did get. With the future of the Bond franchise very unclear for the moment, there remains some hope that the fan-favorite character returns in the next installment, but it's far more likely that audiences will have to look elsewhere to enjoy the rising star that is de Armas.
Source: The Guardian