Power and Beauty: Honoring the Black Women of Bond
Trina Parks, Naomie Harris, Halle Berry and Gloria Hendry. (Photo: Getty Images)
Last night in Los Angeles, Essence hosted The Black Women of Bond Tribute, honoring Trina Parks, Naomie Harris, Halle Berry and Gloria Hendry, four iconic film stars who made their mark on the Bond films legacy. Berry, in fact, was the first Oscar-winning actress to appear as a Bond woman in the 2002 film Die Another Day (alongside Pierce Brosnan), and Harris is in the new film, Spectre, as Eve Moneypenny, Bond’s boss and head of the British Secret Service. Her new December cover for Essence was unveiled at the gala.
‘Spectre’ actress on the cover of December 2015 Essence. (Photo: Dennis Leupold)
Harris has recently been outspoken against the term “Bond girl.” In an interview with The Independent, she said, “Monica [Bellucci] is 50 and I think it’s respectable to say she’s a Bond woman. It’s quite demeaning to call her a girl. So I think it’s time we had a little change there.”
Berry echoed similar sentiments in 2002 when she was promoting her Bond film: “I like the fact that she’s the next step in the evolution of the Bond woman,” Berry told IGN. “Year after year, they’ve gotten a little stronger, a little smarter, and more equally yoked with Bond, while still retaining their sexiness. Now they’re Bond’s intellectual equals and physical rivals. What better kind of Bond woman to be than one who keeps up with Bond?”
Hendry, who appeared as Rosie Carver in 1973′s Live and Let Die, was the first-ever black Bond woman and was a groundbreaker outside of the film franchise, too: she worked as a Bunny at the Playboy club in the 1960s and was also a professional singer and dancer. Parks starred in 1971′s Diamonds Are Forever alongside Sean Connery, using her professional dance experience to gracefully and tactfully kick Connery in the groin in an iconic fight scene.
This was Berry’s first official public appearance after the announcement of her impending divorce, which many media outlets have been picking up on, but the real headliner was the solid display of sisterhood. “You inspired me with your representations of black female beauty,” Harris told Parks, Berry, and Hendry onstage.
Related:
Badass Bond Girls, From ‘Dr. No’ to ‘Spectre’
Monica Bellucci, 50, is the Newest Bond Girl — Is Hollywood Rethinking Age?
