Ex-Bond Girl Denise Richards Weighs In on Who Should Be The Next 007
In a twist worthy of a Roger Moore eyebrow raise, Denise Richards has added her own suggestion to the ever-raging debate over who should be the next James Bond. And in true Hollywood fashion, she didn’t have to look much farther than across the dinner table.
The 54-year-old actress, who played the memorably named nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough (1999), has put forward her husband, Aaron Phypers, as her choice to inherit the tuxedo.
“I really don’t even know,” Richards said when pressed on the issue at the Jonathan Foundation Fundraiser. Then, with theatrical timing, her husband Aaron, 52, entered stage left with: “I would do it.”
Without missing a beat, Richards backed him. “He would be an amazing Bond.” Phypers, a wellness entrepreneur by trade rather than a classically trained thespian, doubled down: “I could do it. No problem.”
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From Bond Girl to Casting Agent
Of course, Richards’ own Bond credentials are hard to dispute. Her turn alongside Pierce Brosnan came during an era of the franchise often remembered for its gloss, gadgets, and gratuitous double entendres.
Reflecting on her Bond girl role, she spoke fondly of the whole affair. “Just being part of it,” she said. “I didn’t understand the magnitude of that movie until it came out, and it is amazing the generations that love the film. So, just the whole process and everything was such a whirlwind, amazing time.”
Though not universally lauded at the time, Richards’ performance, and indeed, the film itself, has taken on something of a nostalgic glow in the years since, as Brosnan’s Bond tenure is increasingly reappraised. Some fans have even called for Brosnan to return as 007!
Amazon, Amy Pascal, and a New Era
The Richards-Phypers proposition comes at a time when the franchise itself is undergoing the most seismic shake-up since the producers chose a blonde Bond in Daniel Craig. With Craig’s Bond definitively bowing out in 2021’s No Time to Die, and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson selling a significant stake in the franchise to Amazon MGM for a cool $1 billion, all bets are off.
In March, it was announced that Amy Pascal (who helped usher Craig into the role) and Harry Potter and Barbie producer David Heyman would take the reins for the next chapter. What direction they’ll take is anyone’s guess, and that, as always, is part of the fun.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, long rumoured to be circling the role, recently received a public endorsement from none other than Brosnan himself: “This young man came on the set and took the space, filled the space with passion and energy. So yeah, I think if he wished it, wanted it and got it, he would be great.”
License to Imagine
Could Aaron Phypers seriously be in the running? Almost certainly not. But Richards’ comment reminds us that Bond, for all its gravitas and global box office dominance, remains one of the last great movie myths: a fantasy sandbox where anyone, in theory, can dream of stepping into the tux.
And while the smart money is still on a more established name, like Taylor-Johnson, James Norton, or even someone entirely left-field, there’s something disarmingly sweet about Denise Richards throwing her husband’s name into the martini mixer. After all, in the world of Bond, stranger things have happened.
