Ian Fleming’s spy isn’t a stranger to a bloody assassination, nor is he one to bed the women he comes across in his adventures.
Shooting James Bond love scenes were always going to be slightly awkward for the actors as they are on any movie set, although classic 007 took it to another level.
Producer Cubby Broccoli would have bags of ice pressed on Sean Connery’s chest to flatten it before filming such intimate moments.
And during the shoot of one sexual encounter, the 007 star and the Bond girl had to perform the scene with a large group of press photographers crowded around the bed.
Luciana Paluzzi, who played SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe in this scene from Thunderball has spoken out on the surreal experience and how filming 007 sex sequences isn’t actually what audiences may think.
The 86-year-old Bond girl gave a recent interview in the new book Movies Go Fourth by Mark Edlitz, author of The Lost Adventures of James Bond and The Many Lives of James Bond.
Looking back on the fourth 007 movie, she said of working with Connery, who died in 2020 aged 90: “He was very engaged. He liked [the role]. The part of Bond propelled him into stardom and that’s what an actor wants. Later, maybe he wants to go do King Lear, but this part is a way to command your own future. By arriving and having such stardom. He seemed very grateful.”The author said: “There’s a very interesting scene with you and Sean in bed. It’s sexy but it’s also very intimate. However, from photos taken at the time, I gather you and Sean had a lot of company that day.”
Paluzzi replied: “That is very correct. They decided to have all the photographers from all the magazines and the newspapers on the set that day. But all through the day, besides the crew, we had about 30 extra bodies on the side shooting away in between takes.
“They would only go silent while we were shooting, but that was only for about a minute. It was fun even though the sex scenes are never really sexy. You’re never really naked.
“Thank God it was not in fashion at the time. Even when I appear to be naked in another scene in the tub, I still had my underwear on. I wasn’t totally naked.”
Mark Edlitz’s Movies Go Fourth: 4th Films in Fantastic Franchise is out now.