- - Maryam d’Abo Blames Herself for Not Having 'Enough Confidence' as a Bond Girl in 1987

Victoria EdelFebruary 10, 2026 at 3:07 AM

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Maryam d'Abo in 'The Living Daylights' (left); Maryam d'Abo in October 2023 (right)

Keith Hamshere/Getty; Dave Benett/WireImage

Maryam d’Abo opened up about how her career was shaped by her role as a Bond girl in 1987's The Living Daylights

d’Abo said she didn't have 'enough confidence' about herself at the time

She played Kara Milovy, a cellist and KGB sniper, opposite Timothy Dalton as James Bond

Being cast as a Bond girl can make someone’s career, but it can also push it off course.

Maryam d’Abo opened up about her experience starring alongside 007 in a Feb. 9 interview with The Guardian. d’Abo, 65, starred as Kara Milovy, a cellist who’s also a KGB sniper, in 1987’s The Living Daylights. The movie was Timothy Dalton’s first outing as James Bond; he would reprise the role in one more movie, 1989’s Licence to Kill.

d’Abo told the outlet that she loved making The Living Daylights, explaining, “It was like a big family.”

But once the attention from the movie found her, she told The Guardian, she was worried about being exposed. “I take responsibility for not having had enough confidence,” she said. “I was quite shy. I hadn’t been a child actor.”

Timothy Dalton and Maryam d'Abo in 'The Living Daylights'

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She added, “But I’m not blaming Bond for screwing up my career. I’ll never regret it.”

Back in 1987, d’Abo, then 26, spoke to PEOPLE about how she didn’t want The Living Daylights to give people the wrong impression about her. She said her character “is not the typical all-sex, no-thought creature,” in contrast to some other Bond girls. They were, she said, “mostly cartoony ... I am an actress.”

She also posed for Playboy to promote the film, but told PEOPLE, “I wouldn't do those pictures now. I've learned a lot since then.”

The Living Daylights was ultimately a success, making over $190 million. d’Abo was born in London but raised in Paris and Geneva, and she told The Guardian one career regret was staying in Los Angeles after The Living Daylights when she could have focused on theatre in France.

Maryam d'Abo in February 2025

ANL/Shutterstock

In 2002, she produced a documentary, Bond Girls Are Forever, where she spoke to women about working on James Bond films. “My pitch was Judi Dench,” she told The Guardian, referencing the actress who began playing Bond’s boss M in 1995’s Goldeneye, alongside Pierce Brosnan as Bond. She ultimately appeared in eight films.

“I said there is no story without her, because she becomes James Bond’s boss,” d’Abo said. “I wanted to show how these roles had evolved and how they mirrored society – how they went from the 60s and villains like Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, in which there was a huge amount of tongue-in-cheek humour, to the '70s where Maud Adams is badly treated. It would be unthinkable now but there is that scene in The Man With the Golden Gun when Roger Moore smacks her in the face.”

d’Abo is currently starring in Spanish Oranges, a play by her friend Alba Arikha, which is playing in London.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”