Eight Arms to Hold You: A Conversation with Maud Adams

Maud Adams is, in every way, a true lady.  Tall, beautiful and perfectly poised, she has a quiet way about her that had the ability to make me into a nervous teenager again.  But, you can’t help but be nervous when you are talking to one of the most beautiful women in the world, and one of film’s most famous femme fatals. 

Starting her career as a model in Sweden, Maud Adams became one of Europe’s’ most popular models in the 1960’s, which eventually lead to an acting career.  Making her first screen appearance in a bit part in 1970’s The Boys in the Band, Adams received her first big role in 1971’s The Christian Licorice Store opposite of Beau Bridges, placing her on the cultural radar. 

"Octopussy" (1983) starring Roger Moore as James Bond and Maud Adams as Octopuusy

However, it wasn’t until 1974 when she won the role of the tragic Bond girl Andrea Anders in the James Bond thriller, The Man with the Golden Gun, that Maud Adams found her path to pop culture iconisim.  Starring Roger Moore as James Bond, Christopher Lee as the villainous assassin Scaramanga, and featuring future pop culture icon Herve Villechaize in his breakout role as Nick Nack, Maud shared Bond girl duties with Britt Eckland.  However, becoming popular with both the producers, the audience and Roger Moore himself, Maud Adams got an unprecedented chance to shine in the spotlight when she returned to the Bond franchise as the title character in 1983’s Octopussy.  Although she was called in to provide support for a screen test for a potential replacement for Roger Moore as James Bond, Maud was shocked when she was handed the role of the voluptuous smuggler and femme fatal.  Maud Adams is currently the only actress in the long film franchise to not only appear in more then one film as a Bond girl, butthe only woman to play a title character of a Bond film.  Octopussy would become the most financially successful Bond film of the 1980’s and is considered by many fans to be one of Roger Moore’s best outings as Bond.  Strangely enough, Maud Adams even made a third Bond appearance in an uncredited crowd scene in A View to a Kill.  Easily the most iconic of all of Roger Moore’s co-stars, Maud Adams continues be one of the most beloved Bond girls of all time.

I met Maud Adams while working at an autograph and collectable show in Toronto.  However, I can’t honestly say that I got to know her.  Maud Adams seemed to be a private woman.  Incredibly reserved, Maud Adams was an enigma to me for the majority of the weekend.  Yet, despite being quiet, Maud Adams has no fear of slipping into the background.  Although it has been decades since her Bond days, Maud Adams is still breathtakingly beautiful, and when she walks into a room every head turns to watch her.  I must admit that part of my intimidation of Maud Adams wasn’t just that she was enigmatic, but because she is easily one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever interviewed.  How do you approach Octopussy?

But once Maud and I were able to sit down together I found her very easy to talk to.  Maud Adams is a very intelligent and realistic woman who has never bought into her own iconism.  Come listen as Maud and I talked about her modelling career, her Bond co-stars and of course, life as a Bond girl as:

CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT PRESENTS

EIGHT ARMS TO HOLD YOU: 

A CONVERSATION WITH MAUD ADAMS

I spoke with Maud Adams in Toronto, Ontario in September 2009

Sam:  How did you get started in modeling?

Maud:  By accident.  I was born in Northern Sweden in a small town and while I was in Junior college I had started doing some local fashion shows.  I had done a few photographs for a local photographer who had sent my picture to a model of the year contest, which I ended up winning.  [I convinced] my parents to take a leave of absence from school for a year because I got a years contract for the magazine and for the modeling agency it was too tempting.  When you grew up in a small town you were very anxious to go out and see the world and expand your horizons so I did go with the intentions of going back [to college] because I didn’t think this would be a future for me, but [it was] an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.  But as it were I started off with a bang and I started doing a lot of work almost immediately.  Next thing I knew I started making money and I never returned to my studies.  I moved on.  I went to Paris and after a couple of years Eileen Ford brought me to New York.  In New York I had a big career as well.  I did a lot of advertising.  A lot of television commercials and basically I got drafted into acting. 

Sam:  What was your first film?

Maud Adams and Beau Bridges in "The Christian Licorice Store" (1971)

Maud:  It was called The Christian Licorice Store and it was made by CBS which started a company called Cinema Center.  It followed, in a way, Easy Rider because the studios really didn’t know where to put their money anymore because the established movies were not the ones making money so they were giving money to young film makers and this was one of those movies.  I tested for the part and got it and I played opposite of Beau Bridges in the leading role which was pretty amazing considering that I hadn’t no experience.

Sam:  How much longer did it take you before you got the role in The Man with the Golden Gun?

Maud:  It took a few years and I did two more movies.  I didn’t belong to the union so I was not allowed to work in the States so I did two films in Canada.  One was called Mahoney’s Estate and the other one was called The Girl in Blue with David Selby.  So after those two movies, I was still modeling of course, but I spent some time taking some acting classes in New York and I had this agent who set me up an audition for The Man With the Golden Gun.

Sam:  You did the majority of your scenes with Christopher Lee who, at that point, was really struggling in his career.  What was it like working with him during that era of his career?

Maud Adams with Christopher Lee in "The Man With the Golden Gun": "Later on, Christopher Lee had the best career of us all."

Maud:  Well he’s a classically trained actor and a brilliant man and when we were making The Man with the Golden Gun I remember Roger Moore always used to tease him, because Roger is a tease, about blood and such, and I know that Christopher Lee did not enjoy that kind of humour at all because, while Bram Stoker was a fabulous writer and Dracula is a very serious work, Roger made fun of it and Christopher didn’t like that at all.  Of course, later on, Christopher Lee had the best career of us all.

Sam:  He’s the comeback star of the 21^st Century.

Maud:  Absolutely.

Sam:  How was your relationship with Christopher Lee?

Maud:  Very good.  Very, very good.  When you’re away on location for long periods of time you make friendships and we had many many dinners together.  His wife is Danish so he knew a little bit of Danish.  I really liked him a lot.

Sam:  That was also Herve Villechaiza’s breakout film.  He had a reputation of being a dark and tragic figure.

Maud Adams and Britt Eckland pose with Herve Villechaiza in a whimsical "Man with the Gold Gun" promotional photo: ". In Thailand, in the morning when we were going out on location, he would just be coming home with two girls on his arms and a big cigar in his mouth "

Maud:  I didn’t see him that way.  I saw him as a private human being, and he also had quite a bit of talent.  He was a good artist.  We got along great.  When we were in Thailand, he was a guy who liked to live life to the fullest.  I know he was aware that he was going to live a short life because he did have some medical problems and so he wanted to get the most out of it that he could.  In Thailand, in the morning when we were going out on location, he would just be coming home with two girls on his arms and a big cigar in his mouth and he’d have this crackling sort of voice.  He loved that.  I knew that he also had a temperament and a problem with drugs and alcohol and was very self destructive, but on a personal level with me he was very sweet.  He used to draw quite a bit and he would pass his drawing under my door in the hotel.  I’d wake up in the morning and there would be a drawing lying on the floor and it had been something he had made and given to me, which I thought was very, very sweet.  I wish I had kept them but I didn’t.  I have one thing that he gave me.  He gave me a lithograph later on which is very lovely. 

/*Sam:  And of course you had a good working relationship with Roger Moore…

Maud Adams with Roger Moore: "He has got a heart of gold. There is no question about it."

Maud:  Great.  He has got a heart of gold.  There is no question about it.  He hides it pretty well in the sense that he’s a big teases and he’s got a great sense of humour.  It’s a little bit of a little boy sense of humour but he’s a very smart guy.  Very well read.  He was always the first one to run to somebody’s bedside if there was an accident or someone was ill.  It’s something that he’s proven in the last couple of years as being an ambassador for UNICEF.  He’s a very caring person. 

Sam:  Now you broke the norm by going from being a Bond girl in one film, to becoming the main Bond girl in another film when you took the title role in Octopussy.  How did that come about?

Maud:  I tried to figure it out myself and who knows why?  One of the reasons is because I got along with the whole crew, and I knew that they had some problems with some of the actresses, and I think they needed someone that they knew that they were going to like.  That’s my own explanation.  I have no idea.  Nobody ever explained it to me.  When I tested for the part they asked me to come to London to test with another actor who they were thinking of casting as Bond.

Sam:  It was James Brolin, wasn’t it?

Maud Adams as Octopussy

Maud:  It was James Brolin.  He did a good test.  He is a good actor but an American would not have fit into that part.  But Roger hadn’t signed on and his contract was up and I think he wanted more money, obviously, because he had done so many of them.  I guess in the end they came to an agreement.  But for my part I just thought that I was doing them a favour.  I really did.  When they then gave me the part nobody could have been more surprised then me. 

Sam:  You’ll always be remembered for Octopussy.  Does that bother you?

Maud:  Oh no.  For a while there I felt that “Oh, I’ve done other things.  Can’t you talk about something else?”  It’s also very hard because I think my physical attributes haven’t really stood me wrong.  It was hard sometimes to convince people that I could do serious acting because at that point I had been putting serious effort into my acting and I wanted to prove that I could do something more substantial.

Sam:  What’s the film that you are the most proud of?

"I always became this very exotic beauty and I also always became someone who came from a foreign country"

Maud:  At this point I don’t even remember them because they all just roll together.  I made a lot of independent movies and I’ve worked all over Europe.  I had something going for me, which was my looks, but I had something working against me, which was my height.  A lot of the actors that worked against me were tall, but the majority of the male leads are not short and they were very reluctant to work with an actress as tall as me.  I lost a lot of jobs because of my height.  Also, no matter how good my English became, my accent could never be American so I always became this very exotic beauty and I also always became someone who came from a foreign country.  So I ended up doing a lot of independent movies.  I’ve worked in Italy.  I’ve worked in Spain.  I don’t think a lot of [the movies] ever [came to North America].  So a lot of the work I’ve done I haven’t even seen. 

Sam:  Do you have any projects on the go now?

"I don’t like the culture of celebrity. I’ve always been uncomfortable with it."

Maud:  Yes.  I’ve worked in Sweden.  Actually some of the work I’ve done in Sweden I’m pretty happy with.  I’ve done two television series there.  I’ve worked on stage for the first time in Sweden.  I’ve done a lot of television appearances.  Lots of guest star roles on this and that.  I find at this stage of my career I love to work and I love to work with good people.  I love the process but I don’t like the culture of celebrity.  I’ve always been uncomfortable with it.

Sam:  What is it about it that makes you uncomfortable?

Maud:  It’s probably my upbringing.  I have never been able to buy into the idea that there is such a thing.  The work stands for itself.  I just think you, as a human being, should be judged as any other human being, so I am uncomfortable with it.  I don’t hold myself as anything because I’m well known or known in certain circles, for being any different than anybody else.  So that’s one of my big problems in Hollywood today, more then anything, and I don’t want to be part of it.

Although she might not be comfortable with the “culture of celebrity,” Maud Adams has certainly made branded her eight armed mark on the hearts and minds of Bond fans and pop culture buffs world wide.  In the weeks after I did this interview, both friends and business contacts professed life long crushes on Maud Adams, and were full of questions about what she was like.  However, I often found it very hard to tell them anything more then what I knew – she was quiet, private and a true lady.  That and that she was drop dead gorgeous, but then they knew that already.