Not so gay Bond

Skyfall screenwriter John Logan spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and explained why he had incorporated the gay subtext into the showdown between Bond and Silva towards the end of the movie -

“Some people claim it’s because I’m, in fact, gay but not true at all. Sam (Sam Mendes - Skyfall director)  and I were discussing, there were so many scenes where Bond goes mano-a-mano with the villain, whether it’s Dr. No or Goldfinger or whatever, and there’s been so many ways to do a cat-and-mouse and intimidate Bond, and we thought, what would truly make the audience uncomfortable is sexual intimidation; playing the sort of homoerotic card that is sort of always there subtextually with characters like Scaramanga in Man With the Golden Gun or Dr. No. So we just decided that we should play the card and enjoy it.” John Logan

The homoerotic scene may have been a masterstroke because  it provides a lot of free publicity by bringing up an issue still considered as controversial by many into a film and a character who epitomises heterosexuality. By putting womaniser Bond in a homoerotic situation, the producers of the film guarantee tons of press coverage focused on the character's supposed bisexuality.


This is not the first time that James Bond's sparked off a gay controversy -  Back in 1999 gay actor Rupert Everett created a firestorm of headlines when he announced that he was writing and planning to star in a movie about a gay James Bond. The project never got off the ground, although Everett denied the project was ever in the planning stages and stated that the fact that he was openly gay meant that he would never land the part of 007 despite many feeling he would be superb in the role - “I'd like to play James Bond, but straight. It won't happen because Bond fans would burn down MGM if the studios got a gay actor to play James Bond. There was never going to be an alternative gay Bond either. That never happened.” Rupert Everett