Not your average Bond girl - Samantha, that is

[Blowfeld]

By Judith Woods

Last updated at 3:06 AM on 31st October 2010

Renowned for her sizzling stint as Miss Moneypenny in the 007 films, actress Samantha Bond tells Judith Woods what’s behind her carpe diem attitude to love and life…

'I think real sexiness leaves a great deal to the imagination,' says Samantha

When Samantha Bond’s Miss Moneypenny locked lips with Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond in Die Another Day, a cheer went up from every woman over the age of 30. Neither arm candy nor arch-enemy, as Miss Moneypenny she exuded the sort of
sexy intelligence that only comes with maturity, and her eyebrow-raising encounter with the legendary spy appeared to mark a radical – and wholly welcome – departure from his usual type of girl. But, although it was a lengthy kiss freighted with heady promise, it turned out to be a romantic reverie in Miss Moneypenny’s head, rather than
a preliminary to 007’s bed. It did, however, afford us a tantalising glimpse of Bond (Samantha, not James) playing quite the foxy minx.

At 49, classically trained Samantha is slim as a letter opener, with a tumble of strawberry blonde hair and the sort of upturned nose that hints at a sense of mischief. More crucially, she exudes sophistication and slinky knowingness in equal measure. Would she consider some day taking on the mantle of the nation’s favourite 50-something femme fatale, at the moment played so seductively by Helen Mirren?

‘I’m not sure about that, not sure at all,’ she demurs. ‘I suppose there are worse things to be typecast as than the sexy older woman, but the moment someone takes their clothes off – on screen or on stage – you immediately stop listening to what they’re saying. By and large I think most nudity is completely uncalled for and a distraction; real sexiness leaves a great deal to the imagination. I would never appear in Calendar Girls, for example, even if they asked me – not least because my son would kill me. My husband wouldn’t bat an eyelid but Tom, my 17-year-old, would be mortified.’

It would indeed be a shame if Samantha, who is a regular as Auntie Angela on BBC family sitcom Outnumbered, were to squander the respect she gained from her son – and 18-year-old daughter Molly – for her dazzling turn three years ago as the villainous Mrs Wormwood, engineering an alien invasion of earth in the highly respected CBBC Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. ‘It was wonderful fun playing a real baddie,’ she sighs. ‘I suddenly got an enormous injection of street cred as far as my children and nieces and nephews were concerned. Even now, every so often, a small person will stop me in the supermarket in open-mouthed horror and whisper, “You’re Mrs Wormwood!” which is rather gratifying.’

Samantha with Pierce Brosnan in The World is Not Enough, 1999

She has also notched up Rumpole of the Bailey, Midsomer Murders and assorted Agatha Christie mysteries among her acting credits, and she was one of five actresses picked to play Queen Elizabeth II in last year’s Channel 4 drama
charting the monarch’s reign. In short, she is the actress producers call on when a bit of cut-glass quality – but not stuffiness – is required. Yet she is even better known in the theatre than she is on screen, including a stint with the RSC.

‘Filming is quite exciting because every day is different, but it can involve long hours standing around in chilly locations. Theatre is a very different challenge because every night you’re striving to keep it fresh, even though you might have been performing the same play for months. I enjoy both disciplines but, because I’m totally driven by the written word, nine times out of ten that draws me into theatre.’ Now there’s a creative challenge for TV scriptwriters.

Meanwhile, she is treading the boards in An Ideal Husband, Oscar Wilde’s savagely funny exploration of political corruption, which has been lent a symbolic new currency in the light of the MPs’ expenses scandal. It’s also a chance for her to work for the first time alongside her actor husband Alexander Hanson, 49, who has just finished a Broadway run of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, first opposite Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury, and then Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch. His return home has been warmly welcomed by his wife. ‘Thank God he’s back and
I won’t have to fly out to New York to see him,’ she murmurs. ‘I’m an appalling flyer. I get very tense, although I no longer weep uncontrollably for no reason – I just sob if there’s turbulence. Everyone else goes through security with a plastic bag containing face cream and lipstick; my bag is crammed with Rescue Remedy sprays. I try not to show how freaked out I am, but it must be etched on my face because someone always touches me on the shoulder and says, “Don’t worry, it will be fine.”’

Performing together, close to home at London’s Vaudeville Theatre, will be an interesting exercise, she admits. Alexander plays the Ideal Husband, Sir Robert Chiltern; Samantha, his blackmailer Mrs Cheveley. ‘It’s a wonderful play and it has a
very modern resonance, and the fact that I’m playing my husband’s nemesis will, I hope, give it a tremendous spark.’ Samantha herself is a fascinating combination of control and sparkiness. Although she balks at the notion that she might be a ‘typical’ redhead in temperament (or a typical anything, for that matter), she concedes that she does possess a certain fieriness.

‘I wouldn’t say I have a short fuse, but once I lose my temper it’s spectacular. My husband knows to keep his distance and just get on with it until it burns itself out. The things that tend to rile me are injustice and jobsworth stupidity, which make me go all self-righteous and indignant. I’m also very mean about me-time, and woe betide anyone who interrupts me to ask about school trainers when I’m having my half-hour at the kitchen table doing the cryptic crossword.’

Intriguingly, given the title of the play, Samantha and her spouse of 21 years have weathered turbulent times in their own marriage, and split up for a year when the children were little. ‘Alex and I met and married in a year, and then I went on to have what they call “Irish twins”, as my two children were born within 14 months
of each other. It was bloody tough and we were a new couple, and it all became too much. For a start, it felt like I’d been pregnant for four years – and then we were juggling the babies and work, and there just wasn’t any room for our relationship.’

Samantha as Mrs Cheveley in the new West End production of An Ideal Husband

It was a trip to poverty-stricken Soweto in South Africa that marked a personal watershed for Samantha. ‘I was performing in a play out there, but before it started we went on a nine-hour visit to meet people who lived in the township. They existed in the most appalling squalor, yet they were offering to share what little food they had with us. It was moving and humbling and a real wake-up call in the midst of the “poor-me”
self-pity I’d been feeling. I counted my blessings – my house, my career, my healthy, well-fed children. When I returned to London I resolved to reopen the lines of communication with their father. One thing led to another, and now we’ve been back together longer than most people have been married.’

Born in London in 1961 (‘a vintage year for full-bodied reds!’ she says), she grew up in a house with a communal garden that overlooked the Thames, where she, her film critic brother Matthew and actress sister Abigail enjoyed a childhood peopled by famous visitors such as Peter Bowles and Patrick Magee. Her Welsh father, Philip, starred in The Onedin Line; her mother, Pat Sandys, was a feisty Scottish
actress-turned-television producer, who died ten years ago of bowel cancer.

‘Up until two weeks before her death, my mother was working on The Bill. She had a Hickman line in her chest, which was attached to a bag of chemotherapy drugs that she wore in a belt round her waist. She refused to make any concessions to her illness and, when she finally did stop work, she was taken into hospital within a couple of days. Two weeks later, she died. I miss her so terribly – all the more because she wasn’t able to see her grandchildren blossom.’

Samantha also lost her close friend, actress Diane Bull, to brain cancer in 1998. ‘The death of a friend can have two effects,’ she observes, her voice shot through with sadness. ‘Either you become fearful or you live each day as fully as you can in honour of their memory. Diane’s cancer wasn’t anything to do with what she ate or drank or how she lived. It just happened, so I try to live in the moment, for her and for me.’
Both women were cared for by Macmillan Cancer Support nurses, and Samantha is a vocal and active supporter of the charity and of the Bowel Cancer Campaign set up by former Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood, who survived an advanced form of the disease.

Samantha openly admits that her profile on the James Bond movies has given her a platform from which to fundraise. She has appeared in four films but, although she was on camera for just two minutes in each, her role nevertheless falls into the category of iconic. ‘For previous Miss Moneypennys, the part effectively killed their careers, so I’m grateful that hasn’t happened to me. Having kissed Pierce Brosnan, I didn’t want to progress to the next Bond, Daniel Craig, as I would have felt I was being unfaithful. But it is rather a gem to have on one’s CV.’

Samantha also smooched Sean Bean when she appeared opposite him as Lady Macbeth on the West End stage. It was reported she was so enthusiastic that she ended up with blood blisters. ‘Actually, it was Sean Bean who left those on my lips,’ she says, with setting-the-record-straight primness. So does that mean he’s a rubbish kisser? I gasp. She recoils at my gossipiness and carefully marshals a response. ‘He was very – how shall I put it? – full-on. Kissing a person in a work situation isn’t at all spontaneous. There’s none of the desire you feel in real life, which makes it more of a technical exercise.’

Samantha strikes me as a passionate rather than a technical kisser. Although she claims she was a podgy teenager who was forced to relinquish her original ambition to be a dancer, this is hard to believe of the lithely energetic woman sitting before me. She lives with her family in Twickenham and, far from being irritated by the noise, she loves to stand in the garden listening to the roar of the rugby crowd (although it rankles her husband that she always supports Wales or Scotland over England). She merrily invites 14 or more friends to Sunday lunch despite being, she says, a mediocre cook, because the joy lies in ‘gathering my beloveds together’, rather than fine dining. Her love of performing, I suspect, isn’t simply confined to working hours.

‘I adore acting, it’s in my blood – quite literally – but I can honestly say the most creative thing in the world for me is being a mother. What gives me more pleasure than anything is looking at my two children and feeling bowled over with awe at them. As far as ambition goes, parenthood is my ongoing work-in-progress. It’s not always easy, but if you keep talking despite the door-slamming and hormonal grunting, it’s hugely rewarding.

‘Professionally I’ve appeared with Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith and it was glorious; like being on stage with thoroughbreds, and every bit as exciting for the other actors as it is for the audience. I’d love to work with Helen Mirren and Ralph Fiennes in the future – I wouldn’t care what part I had.’ Her eyes widen with feline delight at the prospect of such a heady triumvirate, and I wonder if it might not represent the perfect opportunity for Helen Mirren to crown Samantha as her sensuous successor.

An Ideal Husband opens at the Vaudeville Theatre on 10 November. For tickets, call 0844 412 4663, or visit anidealhusbandwestend.com

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[Dr. No]

She was a wonderful pick for Monneypenny. Nobody will be as good as Lois Maxwell and Sean Connery but she and perice come in a close second.

[Kristatos]

She looks good for her age, I must say. That top photo is a great pic of her.

[katied]

She has aged quite well.A few lines and wrinkles, but she looks very very good for 49!

[Captain Nash]

Yeah, I wouldn't kick her out of bed.
She's the second best of the three 'penny's', but I thought her character was mashed up by the different directors.
Sometimes she's more feminist, then she's cooing over Bond. To many variations on the same character.
Probably best in GE and DAD.