Agent of Change
With
Lashana Lynch
Her first acting role may have been as Pinocchio, but in the long-awaited Bond instalment No Time To Die, LASHANA LYNCH proves she’s no puppet to 007 – this is a woman who can handle a weapon with just as much flair as she handles herself. Here, the actor talks to YOMI ADEGOKE about brashness, total self-belief and putting bread, not crumbs, on the table
Lashana Lynch is an excellent storyteller, all pithy punchlines and expectant pauses, as she describes, in detail, the seminal role of her career: Pinocchio, in a primary-school play. “Pinocchio was divine!” she laughs heartily. “I embodied [that role] like a proper puppet. I showed off a little bit because I was like, ‘I know this is supposed to be a boy, and I don’t care.’ Literally, that gave me the foundation for ‘this Black girl can do anything’.”
Since that childhood stint as Pinocchio, reinventing roles predominantly associated with men, or whiteness, has reoccurred throughout Lynch’s career: in 2013, she played Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet at the National Theatre; a few years later, she portrayed another Capulet, starring as Rosaline in the seven-part, Shonda Rhimes-produced series Still Star-Crossed. And in 2015, she took the titular role in Educating Rita, the production that made Julie Walters famous in the 1980s. Then last year, to much fanfare, Lynch was announced as the new 00 agent in the James Bond franchise – her character, Nomi, steps in to replace Bond after his retirement from active service. The title has never been used by a person of color before.
Thanks to a supportive Black female headteacher (with whom she recently reconnected) and a “grounded, honest, quite traditional, but also forthright” Jamaican family, Lynch distinctly remembers growing up thinking she could do whatever she put her mind to. “Primary school taught me that Black people can do anything,” she says. “I didn’t understand when I got into the world why people who looked a certain way couldn’t do something.”
Born in Hammersmith, London, in 1987, Lynch was set on her acting journey from a young age; she dabbled in music first, but then went on to ArtsEd drama school in Chiswick, where she became a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Bursary, given to outstanding students at the end of their second year.
“I mainly grew up with my grandmother, who, if I was to say, ‘I want to be a beaver today,’ she [would be] like, ‘Yes, you’d better be the best beaver in the world!’” Lynch chuckles of her upbringing. “My mum reminded me the other day that my nan had said, ‘You’d better really pay attention to that child; she’s going to put bread on the table. And I don’t mean crumbs, I mean bread.’ So now I’m putting bread on the table.”
“My nan had said, ‘You’d better REALLY pay attention to that CHILD; she’s going to put bread on the table. And I don’t mean crumbs, I mean BREAD’”
Lynch’s self-belief at times seems otherworldly – though never arrogant; she’s grateful for the opportunities but also acknowledges them as a birthright. “The brashness and confidence I have now – just imagine that in a little girl!” she says. “I remember being rooted in a knowing that I can’t really explain, apart from it being ancestral.”
Indeed, while thrilled about her most high-profile roles to date – Nomi in No Time To Die and Maria Rambeau, an Air Force pilot, in 2019’s Captain Marvel – they didn’t come as a surprise to her. In 2016, when Lynch was starring in Still Star-Crossed, she had already set her sights on one of the biggest film franchises in the world: the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
She got the call for the role of Maria, best friend of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), less than a year after Still Star-Crossed aired. Captain Marvel went on to be the highest-ever-grossing superhero film with a female lead and the second-biggest debut for a superhero movie. Lynch speaks frequently about manifestation, but also stresses that, while her journey might appear to have happened overnight, Marvel was 10 years in the making, with a number of setbacks along the way: she’d auditioned for Venom, Black Panther and one of the Avengers films unsuccessfully.
It was when Lynch was appearing in Ear for Eye, the vital and acclaimed play by Debbie Tucker Green, at the Royal Court Theatre (she is also starring in the forthcoming movie adaptation) that she was scouted by producer Barbara Broccoli for the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed No Time To Die. Lynch recalls the first meeting she had for the franchise, a vague 50-minute chat with Broccoli and Fukunaga about a potential character, during which she performed a few scenes.
“The brashness and CONFIDENCE I have now – just IMAGINE that in a little GIRL!”
“I got an M scene and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re getting a Black M?’ I was so excited!” says Lynch. Though she was prepared to reshoot the audition scenes multiple times, as is standard, she was told by Fukunaga that he had seen enough. “I thought, ‘I don’t know what that means, but I’ll just take it as it’s mine.’ I get a feeling [of] ‘it’s mine’ as much as I get the feeling, ‘it’s definitely not mine’.” While she was auditioning, she had told only her mother and a close friend who helped her tape it – and they were the only two people Lynch shared the news with when she found out she had been offered the part. “The howling that released from my mum’s mouth was like something I’ve never heard before. Like the biggest ‘Jesus!’ [She] screamed at the top of her lungs, but she also said, ‘I knew it’ and I said, ‘so did I’.”
Everyone else, she says, found out on social media along with the rest of the world (“because I’m great at keeping secrets!”). Working with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who was brought on as a screenwriter for the film, was a highlight of the job, and Lynch found herself taken aback by the resonance of Nomi’s portrayal. “[Waller-Bridge] brought a lightness of touch that really matched Black feminine energy,” she says. “And I don’t quite know how she did that. When I read lines that were clearly from her, it all just made sense to the kind of upbringing that I imagined Nomi would have.”
Announcements around a new Bond film are often akin to a national holiday, but it was specifically heartening to see a Black woman at the center this time. Before heading to the States, as so many Black British actors have had to do to find their success, Lynch first tried her luck at home. Her first on-screen role, in 2007, was in police series The Bill and her film debut was in 2012 drama Fast Girls. But things really started picking up for Lynch career-wise when she left for the US.
“Once a [Black British actor] has gone to America, the UK kind of sees them as American,” she considers. “They don’t focus on the reason they left in the first place. The UK is too busy looking to the left and right to see what everybody else is doing, and not paying attention to our own history, [which] really needs looking at.”
There was a backlash to Lynch’s historic Bond casting. Some claimed that it was political correctness gone mad, others threatened boycotts, and she was sent abuse. It’s a pattern that we’ve seen time and time again when Black women take up space that some believe isn’t for them; after the announcement of Jo Martin as the Doctor in Doctor Who, for instance, and in the wake of Jodie Turner-Smith being cast as Anne Boleyn.
“[Phoebe Waller-Bridge] brought a LIGHTNESS of touch to the script that really MATCHED Black feminine ENERGY. I don’t quite know how she did that”
While batting away critiques about Black actors’ ability to play traditionally white characters, there is also ongoing debate regarding the Black characters that Black British actors can play. “One word that is very rarely used when it comes to Black Brits working on American projects is collaboration,” Lynch says, when I raise the issue. “I’ve not witnessed anyone stealing anything from anyone.”
“Daniel [Kaluuya] did a great job on all his projects,” she continues. “Letitia [Wright], great job. Cynthia [Erivo], great job. David Oyelowo, great job. When someone turns around and does a really terrible job, I would hate to see the reaction, if this is the reaction to doing fantastically.”
Lynch is currently preparing to step into another seminal pop-culture role. Next year, she will star in the movie adaptation of the musical Matilda, adapted from Marcus Warchus’s 2010 stage production, playing Miss Honey – one of literature’s most beloved teachers. Before that, though, comes the release that will change Lynch’s life as she knows it.
“I don’t have a damn CLUE what it means to have no anonymity. But there’s only ONE way to find out, and that’s to PROPERLY step into it”
“I feel like this came at the right time,” she says. “I feel like Marvel happened exactly when it was supposed to and that prepared me for Bond physically, mentally, even spiritually. I feel like I’ve been prepared for this moment.”
“I say that, not having a damn clue what it means to have no anonymity,” she reflects. “But there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to properly step into it and live it. And that’s what I’m about to do.”
No Time To Die is in cinemas now (UK), and from October 8 (US)
SHOP THE SHOOT
9 items