Saoirse Ronan 'dead serious' about James Bond role

Saoirse Ronan is "dead serious" about wanting to be a James Bond villain.

The 32-year-old actress is keen to portray a "dark" role next, and she thinks it would be "really interesting" for the franchise to feature a "young female villain".

She told Empire: "I want to go dark.

"I said that I wanted to be a Bond villain and I’m dead serious.

"I think it would be really interesting, having a young female villain.

"Especially for girls and women, to see someone who can just take all that pent-up anger and direct it somewhere, there’s something interesting in that dramatically.

"So I would love to do more of that."

Ronan played a villain in her 2025 dark comedy thriller Bad Apples - about a primary school teacher forced to take drastic action because of a foul-mouthed, violent student - but the star insists her character Maria Spencer is the "nicest villain" someone could portray.

She said: "The whole point, and the reason why the writing is so clever, is that it’s gone past being black and white.

"I don’t know what I would do in that situation, but I certainly don’t feel like Maria is an out-and-out psychopath. I think she’s the nicest villain you could play."

Ronan - who is married to fellow actor Jack Lowden, who has been linked to the 007 role - has previously expressed her desire to portray a Bond villain, and she even has an idea for her character.

Speaking on a 2024 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast about her potential character, she said: "Her and Bond don't get together or anything, she's a villain. Like Javier Bardem vibes.

"I'm conscious of being blonde, because I feel like a lot of villains in movies, they’re always like, make them super blonde and evil looking."

Speaking before Amazon MGM Studios took over creative control of the Bond franchise in February 2025, replacing long-time producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, Ronan added: "I’d want to break [the trend], but honestly it’s whatever [then-Bond producer] Barbara [Broccoli] wants!"