FORMER JAMES BOND star George Lazenby has backed actress Margot Robbie to become the first woman to play the iconic character.
Lazenby, who played Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service has suggested that his fellow Australian would be good for the role because "she's ballsy".
The former 007, who remains both the youngest person to ever portray Bond (at 29 years old) as well as the only non-European to play him, had previously said he was against the idea of a woman playing the role.
In 2018, he said: "It wouldn't work. If you hit a woman, you get arrested."
However, the 80-year-old has since changed his tune, telling The Sun: "I would rather see a woman on screen than a man, so it might be a good idea having a woman play James Bond.
"Jane Bond. I think it's a good idea. I mean, why not?"
Lazenby added that it was Robbie's performance in then 2013 film Wolf of Wall Street that caught his eye.
"She comes across like she's confident. If you can pull that off, people will believe you."
As a further suggestion, Lazenby said that the Bond casting directors could look to female UFC fighters as potential candidates for the role, alluding to their physical strength and often larger-than-life characters, adding "I wouldn't like to meet one in a dark alley."
The question of who is to play Bond next has been anything but a simple one.
There are plays being made from certain corners of Hollywood for a woman to play the role, while others would like to see a person of colour receive 00-status.
There are others however who feel as though changing Bond's gender, ethnicity and even appearance would be a betrayal of a character which is so historically intrinsic to British popular culture.
