James Bond casting director Debbie McWilliams announces her retirement – and doesn’t seem too pleased with Jeff Bezos casting 007 via social media.
Following on from the news last week that producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson are stepping back from creative control of the James Bond saga – here’s the story, if you somehow missed it – the changing of the guard is continuing.
Specific to this story, Debbie McWilliams has confirmed to Screen Daily that she’s retiring from casting. She’s been the casting director across the last 13 James Bond movies, from three 007s – Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig – through to the rest of the films’ ensembles.
Her work hasn’t been exclusively about James Bond, having worked across a bunch of notable British productions, right back to Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life. But inevitably, it’s 007 that takes the headlines.
Her departure is directly related to creative control being handed over to Amazon. Her statement to Screen is a little bit pointed: “I am sad to see the end of this era but totally understand why it has happened … Prior to Amazon acquiring MGM, Barbara and Michael had a good working relationship with the studio and always held the final decisions.”
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She notes that Barbara Broccoli would have had to shoulder the challenges of producing the next Bond film alone with the retirement of Michael G Wilson, and that doesn’t sound like it was appealing. For McWilliams, staying on then became unappealing too. “Looking at Amazon’s previous theatrical films does not fill me with any great enthusiasm”, she wrote.
Responding specifically to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos heading onto social media to court suggestions for the next 007 didn’t help either. “Choosing the actor to fill the role is a huge task and not one I would hand over to subscribers of X”, McWilliams wrote.
She also paid tribute to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson.
It does make us wonder if there’s a broader changing of the guard that’s on the way. Eon Productions has been a family business, but now that the controls of 007 lie with Amazon MGM Studios, will the crew who have shepherded these movies under Broccoli and Wilson disperse?
Changing times. The full statement from Debbie McWilliams can be read here.
