James Bond Producers Were Told To Cut A Line About 007’s Gay Past By The Studio, But ‘We Resisted’

James Bond is a notorious ladies man, but in Skyfall, he makes a sexually-charged hint about his history with men. After being tied up and having his shirt unbuttoned, Javier Bardem’s villainous Raoul Silva tells 007, “We can either eat each other… or eat everyone else.” He continues to stroke Bond’s neck and legs, calling it a “first time for everything.” This causes Bond to smile. “What makes you think this is my first time” he says. It’s the most homoerotic scene in an action movie since Top Gun — and one of the best scenes in any of Daniel Craig’s Bond movies. But it was almost cut from the film.

“I remember we were told to cut that line by the studio and we said, ‘No, no, no.’ We resisted,” producer Barbara Broccoli said in the Apple TV+ documentary, Being James Bond. “The night of the premiere, that line, just the whole place rocked it then… I remember looking at the studio executive [and] going, ‘See, told you.'” Skyfall director Sam Mendes added, “I think there’s a huge homoerotic undertow in a lot of Bond movies.” The movies where the hunk frequently gets tied up with rope You don’t say.

Pierce Brosnan, the Bond before Craig, has said that he would welcome a gay 007 and it would make for an “interesting viewing,” but he doesn’t “how it would work. I don’t think Barbara would allow a gay Bond to happen in her lifetime.” At least we’ll always have Skyfall (and Paul F. Tompkins’ cover of the iconic theme song).