From the Archive
007 Issue #14 (1984)

How did you come to play the role of Moneypenny?
Well it’s a very sad story because my husband had a double coronary on my son’s second birthday and the doctors didn’t expect him to live. So I called five different people with whom I had worked – Terence Young, ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and three other directors and producers. They all knew that Peter was desperately ill and I said “Peter is very ill and I have two little children and I will do anything!” So I believe it was about the end of January and Peter had recovered somewhat, but he wasn’t well enough to work or anything. It was about then that Terence Young called me and said I want you to come in and see me and ‘Cubby’ about a film we’re going to make called Dr. No! They said which part do you want, Moneypenny or Sylvia, which eventually Eunice Gayson played. Of course I said I’d rather play Moneypenny. I remember in the scene with Sylvia, she is discovered in Bond’s flat in his pyjama top putting a golf ball – well I didn’t know how to putt a golf ball and I didn’t fancy myself in Bond’s pyjama top, so I said I would play Miss Moneypenny if they would allow me to give her a background and that’s how it all started – never expecting it to go on for 21 years! It was the smallest role I had played in my career but I was glad to play it of course as it helped the family finances.

Did you or anyone else realise how successful the film Dr. No would be?
Nobody did at that time because it was just at the time when a whole load of ‘cops and robbers’ and spy films were being made. I believe the original intention was to make a good exciting spy film and I’ve been told that after about half of the film had been shot they made up a rough cut and invited various producers, directors, wives and friends and so forth to come to a screening. Apparently everybody laughed and thought it was very funny, so Terence and ‘Cubby’ said “Wow! Let’s exaggerate these double-entendres and the spoof bits” that’s what really made it stand out from the other thriller films of the time. Of course it also had Ursula Andress – she was sensational and it was probably the first time a British film had had such an attractive woman in the lead with practically nothing on!

Were there ever plans to enlarge the role of Moneypenny in the films?
Oh yes! Ian Fleming had decided plans. He said that he planned to put Bond in such a difficult and diabolical position that the only person able to get him out of the situation would be Moneypenny, because she was always in the office, she knew everything but she was unknown to the villains!

When the Bond series really took off were you signed up for several films at a time?
No, it was negotiated each time and on many occasions when I’ve asked for a bit more money I was told “Oh no we’ll replace you”, but of course at the last minute they didn’t.

Don’t you think this was a little unfair of the producers?
Well I honestly think that they probably didn’t realise how the rest of the characters would become such an integral part of the Bond films too! It’s to their credit they eventually did pay an extra fifty quid (laughs) and kept us on!

Do you think that sort of attitude is prevalent in producers because they are more business orientated than creative?
I wouldn’t say that! What people tend to forget, even people in our business, is that the film industry is a business -they’re not there for charity! They’ve got to have an above the line profit and they’ve got to pay their below the line costs and with an international company like United Artists as distributor they can’t afford to be over budget – I’m not saying that they couldn’t have paid Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn and myself a great deal more money than they did, because they could have, and it really wouldn’t have made that much difference to their profits, but it would have made a great deal of difference to the three of us. But they didn’t and that’s that, so every time a Bond film has come along it’s usually been in time to buy a new furnace or a new something for the house, and since I’ve lived in Toronto I’ve cost them more money, because they’ve had to bring me over from Canada and put me up somewhere during shooting. It’s really funny now that the Bonds are playing continually on television, especially in the States. I know in Canada that people assume that every time a Bond film is on television I’m making money, Roger’s making money, M's making money, everybody’s making money. I am considered by literally millions of people to be a millionaire – and it’s quite ridiculous because we don’t even get residuals. If I got five cents for every time a Bond film was shown on any television screen throughout the world I would be a millionaire!

CONTINUED

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