At 2 hours and 43 minutes, No Time to Die is the longest entry into the James Bond canon. Daniel Craig’s swan song was an overstuffed send-off, with the return of old flames and foes, as well as the introduction of new team members and beloved franchise mainstays. The film also features the first openly queer character in a Bond ensemble with Ben Whishaw’s weapons inventor and tech genius Q.
If you didn’t catch the acknowledgment of Q’s queerness, you’re not alone. In the scene where Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Bond show up at Q’s apartment for help, it’s implied that Q is about to have a date. There’s a romantic table set for two, and Q complains that an unnamed “he” is set to arrive soon. Q adds, “Can’t a guy have a nice night to himself for once?”
In her review of the film, Kaila Hale-Stern wrote, “While I was pleased to witness this line, and happy for the fans who have ‘headcanoned’ Q as queer since his first eccentric sweater-wearing appearance in 2012’s Skyfall, it didn’t feel like enough. For what seems like the seventieth time, queer people are finally acknowledged to exist in the world of a major franchise, but only referentially. It’s all tell, no show. Once more we have a queer character confirmed thus by a throwaway, easily excised line half the audience will miss and the other half may never hear, depending on their market.”
Ben Whishaw, who is gay, acknowledged his disappointment with the throwaway moment in a new interview with The Guardian. He said, “And I think I remember feeling something like what you’ve just described. I think I thought, ‘Are we doing this, and then doing nothing with it?’ I remember, perhaps, feeling that was unsatisfying.”
He continued, “For whatever reason, I didn’t pick it apart with anybody on the film, Maybe on another kind of project I would have done? But it’s a very big machine. I thought a lot about whether I should question it. Finally I didn’t. I accepted this was what was written. And I said the lines. And it is what it is.”
Q’s gay aside is one of many moments of self-congratulatory inclusion that major studios have trotted out to earn praise from the LGBTQ+ community. Disney has played this card several times with queer characters, boasting their liberal bona fides with brief scenes or references. They laud a moment of eye contact, a pronoun here or there, in scenes that are easily edited out for more conservative international markets.
This is not to say that we don’t want queer representation in major studio films. We just want it to be well-rounded and comprehensive in the way that straight relationships are portrayed. Sorry, but you don’t get a GLAAD award every time two men hold hands in the background.
When I saw No Time to Die I immediately wondered why they didn’t give Q just a bit more of a moment. What would it have cost to have a cute guy walk in the door with a bottle of wine, showing us Q’s orientation instead of just telling us? The simplest gesture would have made all the difference in terms of the nuance of the scene.
The James Bond film series is on hiatus as the producers search for the next James Bond. Hopefully, we’ll see Whishaw’s Q return, and hopefully he’ll be able to express this aspect of the character more fully.
(via The Guardian, image: MGM)
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Published: Feb 1, 2022 02:44 pm