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“THE ROLE OF VESPER LYND WAS A GIFT. I WAS LUCKY TO GET TO PLAY SUCH A STRONG, HUMAN CHARACTER”
FILM & CULTURE Green, seen here backstage while filming with the Jaguar I-PACE, loves road movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Thelma & Louise weaknesses as her strengths — that has helped her carve out a niche for herself. Green, moviegoers will know, is not like the rest. This afternoon, as we meet in a studio in London, Green has found her way to an elegant antique couch. Surrounding her: greenery and taxidermy, reflecting both her somewhat wild nature and one of her rather peculiar collecting hobbies. “There’s this amazing shop in Paris called Deyrolle, and it’s the most beautiful taxidermist in the world,” she says, and opens a door to another part of her weird, wonderful world. “It has rare birds, camels, lions, everything. I’ve got stuff from there myself. I bought this enormous bull’s head — well, actually, it’s an ancestor of the bull called an aurochs; they don’t exist anymore — because his eyes looked like he was asking for help in the shop. I was like, ‘Okay, you’re going to come home with me.’ It is quite impressive!” RISING TO THE TOP Green’s own look is impressive, too. Best described perhaps as fashion-forward gothic-chic, from her midnight-blue hair to her chunky boots, she emanates confident flair of the kind it takes an expert to master fully. Elan and rugged individualism, it’s clear, matter to Green, in all her choices in life and work. Green has been like this — an individual who’s not afraid to challenge herself or common perceptions — from the very start of her career, which lifted off with her 2003 film debut in The Dreamers, a typically provocative arthouse film from Bernardo Bertolucci. It was then rocket-powered, first by a role in Ridley Scott’s medieval epic Kingdom of Heaven (2005), then by her part in Casino Royale (2006). Here, Green played Vesper Lynd, James Bond’s love interest, in the 007 movie that introduced Daniel Craig and emphatically rebooted interest in the world’s longest-running film series. “The role of Vesper Lynd was a gift,” she reflects. “It was that of a very strong woman, Bond’s equal, which was really cool. And the fact that Bond fell in love with her gave her substance. It was a very human character, so I was very lucky to get to play her.” Was it hard for a Frenchwoman to master the cut-glass English accent required of a character who was an official with Her Majesty’s Treasury? “Yes, it was, very,” Green acknowledges. “I remember in The Dreamers my accent was so French — but I thought my English was so good! But for Casino Royale I worked hard with a wonderful dialect coach. She made me watch movies from the Forties for the repartee, the banter. But it’s the rhythm that you need to nail. That was the challenge.” Onset, the film’s director Martin Campbell later revealed, Green was shy and quiet. “She kept to herself. All she had was her dog, and her dialect coach. So often with American stars you get all sorts of entourage… The Vesper in the Casino Royale book has this almost mysterious, dark quality. Bond reflects on the fact that you can’t quite get to grips with her, you never quite get to know her. Eva has that exact quality. I was thrilled to have her. And boy did she deliver.” OVERCOMING OBSTACLES Green was born in Paris to a French actress mother, Marlène Jobert, and a Swedish dentist father, Walter Green. She has a fraternal twin sister, Joy; Eva is the elder by two minutes. Acting took hold of her early on, pushing aside a teenage enthusiasm for pursuing a career in Egyptology. It also helped with a crippling shyness that’s hard to square with the cool, THE JAGUAR 47
