Daniel Craig: My James Bond is 'not as sexist' as previous Bonds

A dashing, womanizing, ladies' man with *ahem* some potent guns, James Bond is a character that seems to have stepped straight out of the '60s. Because he has -- and he's stayed that way for nearly 50 years.

But Daniel Craig says he hopes that his incarnation of Bond changes that.

In an interview with Britain's Esquire about his upcoming fourth outing as Bond, Spectre, Craig says that it's a "delicate balance" keeping the essence of Bond while grounding him in the present day.
“Hopefully, my Bond is not as sexist and misogynistic as (earlier incarnations). The world has changed. I am certainly not that person. But he is, and so what does that mean? It means you cast great actresses and make the parts as good as you can for the women in the movies.”
That shift away from the traditional(ly sexist) "Bond girl" trope is already pretty clear in Spectre, which cast the oldest Bond girl Monica Bellucci (who is around the same age as Craig, shocker!) and the butt-kicking Lea Seydoux.

So what sparked this change for 007 -- whose infamous appetite for women rivaled his appetite for vodka martinis? Craig explains:
“He’s very (expletive) lonely. There’s a great sadness. He’s (expletive) these beautiful women but then they leave and it’s … sad. And as a man gets older it’s not a good look. It might be a nice fantasy – that’s debatable – but the reality, after a couple of months…”
Well that's ... depressingly realistic. But we'd expect no more from the Bond who turned the franchise into a gritty, Bourne-esque version of the glamorous '60s spy.