Q’s Boyfriend Line in No Time To Die Was Unsatisfying For Ben Whishaw

No Time To Die star Ben Whishaw was unsatisfied with the throwaway “boyfriend” line for his character Q in No Time To Die, the much-praised final outing for Daniel Craig’s James Bond. The film is the fifth of Craig’s Bond saga, which aimed to reinvent the franchise for modern audiences and put a darker, more timely spin on the classic character. No Time To Die was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and packed with an all-star ensemble cast, including Ana de Armas, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Jeffrey Wright, and Léa Seydoux. The story followed a retired Bond as he rejoined the field in search of Malek’s Safin, a terrorist leader out for revenge on SPECTRE.

In the film, Q makes a remark about having a date with his boyfriend, a character who is never shown during the course of the story. The only indication that Q is referring to a date with a man is the use of “he” pronouns, which Bond never questions or refutes. The minor scene only served as a chance to further develop the character, who has often been solely comic relief in the films. However, it resonated with audiences, and many stated on Twitter how they felt seen and included by Q’s minor LGBTQ+ representation in the film.

However, Whishaw doesn’t seem to agree. In a recent interview with The Guardian, the openly gay actor calls the moment “unsatisfying.” While he didn’t “feel it was forced upon the studio” and believes that it “came from a good place,” he reports being unhappy that the film ultimately decided to “do nothing with it.” Whishaw wanted more of a focus on the story point, he says, rather than it simply being mentioned and never spoken of again. Check out his full quote here:

I suppose I don’t feel it was forced upon the studio. That was not my impression of how this came about. I think it came from a good place… 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 it was unsatisfying. 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.

Whishaw makes a valid point about the lack of follow-through for LGBTQ+ characters and storylines in major franchises. Hollywood is making slow but undeniable progress towards true representation, and Phastos’ storyline from Marvel’s Eternals – the first major openly gay character in the MCU – is definite indication of that. And while characters shouldn’t be defined solely by their sexualities, having Q’s boyfriend be a part of the story would have helped develop their relationship, making the character seem more like a real person than a diversity check-box.

There is also the recent outcry to make the next Bond a woman or a person of color, now that Craig’s run has ended. The producers of the franchise have already discussed the possibility of Idris Elba in the iconic role, and No Time To Die did introduce the first female 007, albeit not as Bond, played by Lynch. Hopefully, in the future, the Bond franchise will become more diverse to reflect its global audience, and those diverse characters will be truly integrated into the story.

Source: The Guardian