Hollywood actress Jenna Ortega recently criticized the trend of casting female actresses in traditionally male roles, advocating instead for the creation of new, female-led franchises.
In an interview with MTV while promoting her upcoming movie, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Ortega was asked if she would consider taking on the lead role in a reboot of Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands.”
“I love that there’s a lot more female leads nowadays, I think that’s so special. But we should have our own,” Ortega said. “I don’t like it when it’s like a spinoff — I don’t want to see like ‘Jamie Bond.’ You know? I want to see another badass.”
Ortega’s comments address a growing trend in Hollywood where classic films or franchises are being revamped with gender or race-swapped characters. Her reference to James Bond follows calls by some feminists for the franchise to feature a female lead.
Despite this push, Barbara Broccoli, a longtime producer of the James Bond series, has confirmed the character will remain male.
“I think [the next James Bond] will be a man because I don’t think a woman should play James Bond,” Broccoli said back in an interview in 2021. “I believe in making characters for women and not just having women play men’s roles. I don’t think there are enough great roles for women, and it’s very important to me that we make movies for women about women. He should be British, so British can be any [ethnicity or race].”
James Bond actress Ana de Armas also agreed, stating in a previous interview, “There’s no need for a female Bond.”
“There shouldn’t be any need to steal someone else’s character, you know, to take over. This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he’s at,” de Armas explained at the time.
