Paloma In Profile

A pivotal figure in 2021’s No Time To Die, Paloma is Bond’s guide through the colourful nighttime streets of Santiago de Cuba. Played by Ana de Armas, she is a naïve, gauche newbie who turns out to be a resourceful and deadly asset in Bond’s mission. Below is a deep dive, both on-screen and off, into one of 007’s most vibrant allies. Vamos!

THE CHARACTER: Paloma first encounters Bond, working under the auspices of the CIA, at the brightly lit El Nido Bar in Cuba. Bond reminds her of the code words — “Something about a hat? Paris?” — but the inexperienced agent is too preoccupied to care. “I forget things when I get nervous,” she says. “This is the biggest job I’ve ever had.” 

Paloma leads 007 to a downstairs wine cellar and gives him his (Tom Ford) tuxedo. Working from Felix Leiter’s orders, the pair’s mission is to enter a swish SPECTRE party at the Hotel Olympiad to extract the scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), who had been kidnapped by the organisation from a MI6 Laboratory. 

After Paloma reveals she has only done three weeks of training, further raising Bond’s doubts, the pair stroll into the party and Bond suggests a drink (two vodka martinis, shaken not stirred, naturally). From her lipstick tube, Paloma produces an earpiece (“So I can hear you”) and the pair toast Felix — Paloma downs her drink in one.

Bond and Paloma split up, communicating through the earpieces (“Have you ever been to a party like this?” asks 007. “How do you think I got this job?” replies Paloma). Paloma taps into SPECTRE’s technology, and Bond recognises the voice of Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), whom 007 had imprisoned in Belmarsh prison. Paloma spots Obruchev and starts tailing him. 

The gathering is revealed as a ruse by Blofeld to trap and kill Bond by using nanobot technology, the former surveying the party from Belmarsh utilising his bionic ocular implant. Placing 007 in a harsh spotlight, Blofeld unleashes a mist containing deadly nanobots designed to kill him. But in a further twist, the nanobots have been reprogrammed by Obruchev to ignore Bond and kill only SPECTRE operatives. 

In the melee that follows, Paloma spots Obruchev and, along with Bond, starts to hurry him out of the building, revealing herself to be a crack shot with a gun. Still, their bounty is stolen by rival MI6 agent Nomi (Lashana Lynch), who bungees through the glass ceiling (“May I cut in?”) and bounces out with Obruchev in her arms. 

Bond gives chase while Paloma holds off the attackers with some deadly two-handed gunplay. Soon she runs out of ammunition but keeps Bond safe with a dazzling display of martial arts, kicking over, then shooting her attackers. In the eye of the storm, Bond and Paloma share a quick drink as 007 marvels at her prowess (“Three weeks training? Really?” he asks. “More or less” comes the reply) 

As a refreshed Bond goes in search of Nomi and Obruchev, Paloma steals a classic car. Noticing Obruchev has stepped onto scaffolding to make his escape, she drives the vehicle headlong into the structure, bringing it and the scientist down on her bonnet. Bond arrives and takes Obruchev to Nomi’s plane and an escape route.

THE CREATION: “As a young actress, I looked at Bond Girls like a myth and never thought I could be one, because it was hard to relate to perfection,” de Armas told Mark Salisbury for the Being Bond book. “I was really flattered that Cary, Daniel, and the producers thought of me.”

De Armas, who had previously worked with Craig on Knives Out, was delighted that her induction into the world of 007 meant she could play a three-dimensional character rather than an untouchable icon. 

“When I read the script, I was surprised, too, because Paloma has flaws, she’s not perfect, she’s messy and scared and tipsy and makes mistakes,” de Armas said. “On the other hand, she’s nothing close to the damsel in distress. She’s actually the opposite. She’s there to help James Bond get through the night alive. It’s her territory, and so, at least for the night, she’s in charge. That felt very powerful and very exciting.”

Even if Paloma was a new kind of Bond ally, she still had to invoke the glamour that is the series’ trademark. So, de Armas sported a navy blue, almost backless dress created by costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb that served both the story and the character’s high style.

“Paloma is basically earning her stripes,” said Larlarb. “We had discussions about women in these positions, who have to embed themselves in the situation when they’re being called to serve. In the case of Paloma, our introduction to her is at the extravagant SPECTRE party that’s happening in Cuba, which is a black-tie event. So, not to be singled out, she’s basically in this spectacular dress, and does incredible feats in this wisp of a thing. Especially on a franchise like this, it’s important when you turn up the volume, you turn it up really high.”

To portray Paloma as Bond’s partner in punch-ups, de Armas went through two weeks of intensive training, learning to handle weapons and thrive in hand-to-hand combat. The actor called the training “probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done” and, for stunt co-ordinator Olivier Schneider, the character’s fashion sense amped up the difficulty factor to the max.

“I understood she wanted that [a beautiful dress] because it’s her character Paloma and looks fantastic on the screen,” says Schneider. “But for Patrick [Vo], the fight coordinator and myself, it was a nightmare because she could break her ankle at any moment in high heels. And, because of the dress, I couldn’t put any pads on her because she had bare legs. We had to design a fight around all of that. Ana rehearsed very hard to make that happen. It was a pure pleasure doing it.”

When it came time to shoot the sequence, the Cuban born de Armas was wowed by the Cuban street scene recreated on the Pinewood backlot.

“It was really stunning,” she recalled. “I was shocked at the size and scale of the whole thing. It was pretty accurate: the colours, the textures, just the feeling of it.”

Still, she had one reservation, perhaps heightened by her spectacular, if flimsy, costume.

“The only thing that didn’t match was the weather,” she laughed, “but I guess you can’t tell that on camera.”