Barbara Carerra was keen to stress to the media in 1983 that she would not be stereotyped or type-cast after her Bond Girl role...

Breaking The Bond Girl Mould

2nd March 2011

As the hype was building around Sean Connery's return to the role of James Bond in November 1983, the latest femme fatale was attracting press of her own as Barbara Carrera set out to quash any ill-conceived ideas that she may become stereotyped or typecast.

"Stereotyping annoys Latin actress who chases 007 in new Bond film"
As the fictional Fatima Blush, a sexy member of the international crime organization in the latest James Bond thriller, Nicaraguan-born actress Barbara Carrera pursues the legendary Agent 007 throughout the world. She's the first Latin actress ever to star in a James Bond film, and says she resists the idea of being "categorized".


Above: Sean Connery and Barbara Carrera posing in front of a French "Never Say Never Again" poster in Monaco, a day ahead of the premiere held on 17th November 1983.

Fatima Blush is not Hispanic in "Never Say Never Again", a movie that marks Sean Connery's return to the role of Bond. "It is with great pride that I'm changing this stereotyped image that Hollywood had about a Latin woman," Carrera said. "I didn't go into this business for that purpose. But it's the way it seems to be working out. And for that I am very honored to do it for my fellow Latins."

"I think it is wrong to put people in any category, be it Latinos or Russians or Greeks. I hate the idea of intelligent people not being able to see each other as simply other human beings."

A former professional model, Carrera is the daughter of a Nicaraguan diplomat father and an American mother. Her movie career started in 1975 when she appeared in "The Master Gunfighter". She also has done such TV mini-series as "Centennial" and "Masada."

But none of her performances so far had anything to do with Latin women, despite he multilingualism and her charming "Latino look." In "Embryo" with Rock Hudson, she played "a glamorous Frankenstein monster." She was a young Jewish woman who falls in love with a Roman warrior played by Peter O'Toole in "Masada."

Raised in the United States since she was 10 years old, Carrera cherishes her freedom and independence. "If anyone gets caught into a certain cliche, he or she shouldn't curse anyone but him or herself," she said, "It's nobody's fault but the actor's."

Carrera says she believes in changes. "I have discovered that I am constantly changing and I really like that. The minute anyone would want to put me in a number, a label, I would contradict it. Whatever I am now, I am also the opposite of it."

She said Hollywood is famous for stereotyping actors according to their nationalities, but she says this is sometimes the artist's fault. "The actor does not have to permit this," she said.

"It's not easy, because we don't have a constant, big influx of scripts. But we've got to convince (producers) that we can work in other roles, not only in stereotypes."

She admits, though, that she'd love to portray Eva Peron, the late second wife of Argentine dictator Juan Domingo Peron. "I haven't seen the magic of Eva Peron" in the theatre or television versions of her life, she said. "What I've seen are American or British interpretations of her life, but not Latin passion."

 

Until her third film, "The Island of Dr. Moreau" with Burt Lancaster, Carrera had no formal training as an actress. Then she started being coached by Milton Katzelos. "This is my eighth year in show business, but this Bond film, I feel, is my debut because I've been free to really put all my energies into a role," she says. "I was encouraged by my director Irvin Kershner, and this character was great fun to create."

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