SANDY POWELL The costume designer turns

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER AS CUBAN ACTRESS ANA DE ARMAS

WO 25

‘Bond women have always been, for me at least, unrelatable. My character feels like a real woman’

Excitement is reaching fever pitch for the next James Bond film – the 25th in the series – with millions of fans left shaken and stirred by the action-packed online trailer for No Time to Die. This could be Daniel Craig’s last outing as the suave super-spy – and adding to the anticipation is the thought of the sparks flying between him and new co-star Ana de Armas.

The 31-year-old, who dazzles with Chopard jewels in these stunning pictures, plays CIA agent Paloma and has promised her character will be a break from the usual Bond girl. “The Bond women have always been, for me at least, unrelatable,” the Cuban-born actress has said. It meant she had her doubts on first being offered the role. “Obviously I was jumping all over the place and very excited. But I needed to be sure it wouldn’t jeopardise all the work I’d been putting in, that it wouldn’t ruin everything.”

She has credited Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who co-wrote the script, for changing that: “You could tell that Phoebe was in there. There was that humour and spikiness so specific to her. My character feels like a real woman.”

LICENCE TO THRILL In the film, 007 joins forces with the CIA to rescue a kidnapped scientist, leading him to a mysterious villain, played by Rami Malek. Ana’s character is assigned to assist Bond. The role sees her join a starstudded cast, including Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny and Ralph Fiennes as M, together with Spectre’s Léa Seydoux, who returns as psychiatrist and Bond love interest Madeleine Swann. No Time to Die hits UK cinemas in April, when Ana will also be seen in the Netflix Iraq war drama Sergio. As well as that, she’ll appear as Marilyn Monroe in the biopic Blonde, which finished filming a few days before she started on 007.

“I will be a Bond girl with a Marilyn Monroe body,” she said. In the meantime, she is filming the psychological thriller Deep Water with Ben Affleck, about a married couple whose mind V