Miss Moneypenny is no longer a secretary, Naomie Harris says

Miss Moneypenny is now a highly-trained adviser who only types if she is accessing top secret files, the Spectre actress says

Harris and her boyfriend were spied enjoying reflexology and shiatsu treatments at Champneys Photo: REX FEATURES

By Hannah Furness, Arts Correspondent

7:00AM BST 20 Oct 2015

In the old days of Bond, she may have been a flirtatious young assistant poised to take down notes or fulfill the whims of visiting spies.

But the Miss Moneypenny of 2015 will not be wasting her time with secretarial duties, it appears.

The next incarnation of Moneypenny will not be a secretary but a high-level “adviser”, who will only be seen typing if she is busy looking at top secret classified files, the actress who plays her has said.

Naomie Harris said her character is now an equal “friend” to Bond after finding her feet in a research-based role.

Later this month, she will appear in Spectre, the 24th Bond film, as the pair cope with the difficult aftermath of M’s death.

Harris joined the franchise as Eve, appearing as an agent in the field in Skyfall before apparently being relegated to a desk job and renamed Moneypenny.

If you see me at a computer screen, it’s because I’m accessing top secret files

Naomie Harris

Instead, the actress told the Radio Times: “By the end of Skyfall my character realises that she doesn’t have the stomach for killing people and being shot at.

“I imagine her to be someone very academic and thorough, better suited to being behind a desk doing research.

“She’s happier now, she’s found her feet and anyway she’s not M’s secretary; she’s more like an advisor.”

Cast members of new James Bond film Spectre revealed: Naomie Harris, Lea Seydoux, Daniel Craig, Monica Bellucci and Christoph Waltz  Photo: REX FEATURES

Harris reportedly spent several months learning stunt driving and gun training for her role in Skyfall, and was instead offered a typing course for Spectre.

“If you see me at a computer screen, it’s because I’m accessing top secret files,” she said.

The actress said she considers the modern Moneypenny as "very bright", a "tomboy" from the Home Counties who was recruited by MI6 while at university.

She told the magazine she had gone along to her first Bond audition "for a laugh", believing she was "too old" for a traditional Bond Girl role and lacking the "right...assets".