“Heartstopper” star Yasmin Finney aims to be the first trans Bond girl

Daniel Craig’s 007 may be down for the count, but when future filmmakers inevitably reboot the franchise once again, they need look no further than Yasmin Finney for a femme fatale to go toe-to-toe with James Bond. The Heartstopper star told British tabloid The Daily Mirror that she is more than ready to become the first trans Bond girl.

“I would love to be a trans Bond girl or just a Bond girl in general. I love James Bond,” she said in a recent interview. “Every time I watch a Bond film, I think I would love to be that cool, sexy Bond girl that has never been done before.”

The 18-year-old actress best known for starring as Elle Argent in Netflix’s young adult romance added that she draws inspiration from British model Caroline Cossey’s brief appearance in the 1981 Bond film For Your Eyes Only. Cossey was later outed as trans but continued to work despite media scrutiny and discrimination. She went on to become the first out trans woman to pose for Playboy.

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“Shoutout to Caroline. She has inspired me in a way to be the positive representation that James Bond never had,” Finney says. She goes on to describe the barriers performers like Cossey obliterated in Hollywood, making way for trans actors today. “There are people in the industry that were transphobic, but now they aren’t because of the way things are changing. I’d rather not fight it and be a part of it.”

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The proof? Netflix—which has had its own troublesome history with transgender issues—recently renewed Heartstopper for a second and third season. And Finney will also star opposite Sex Education’s Ncuti Gatwa in the upcoming season of long-running British sci-fi series Doctor Who.

Of course, success hasn’t insulated Finney from transphobia. In May, she described an incident in which a fellow diner loudly questioned her gender at a restaurant. After overcoming the shock of the encounter, Finney clapped back by posting a stunning photo on Twitter. “Erm Idk what do I look like to you?” she wrote.

“Are you a boy or a girl”
Today some women shouted this in front of all of her peers while I was about to leave a restaurant…

Erm Idk what do I look like to you? pic.twitter.com/A7BkkzDj7X

— Yaz (@Yazdemand) May 7, 2022

 

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