Interview
VALERIE LEON Gustav Temple meets the actress who starred in practically every cult film and TV series from the 1960s and 70s, as well as the legendary ‘Hai Karate’ adverts www.valerieleon.com
“I never knew quite what to wear to castings, but for that one I wore a maroon catsuit with a gold brocade coat over it, which had belonged to my mother. The producer looked aghast and said, ‘What kind of outfit do you call that?’ I cheekily replied, ‘a Bond girl outfit’. It got me the job!”
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f you have watched some of the Carry On films, episodes of The Persuaders! and The Avengers, two of the James Bond films and Hammer House of Horror’s Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb, you will have seen Valerie Leon, who was in all of them. Gustav Temple meets the actress once described as ‘the English Raquel Welch’.
But by the time you were asked to appear in The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977, the James Bond franchise was already huge, wasn’t it? Yes, it was a big deal. I remember meeting Cubby Broccoli the producer, at Pinewood Studios, and I told him I didn’t want to be killed off. And that’s a crazy thing to say, because when you’re killed off you generally have a better role. Despite that, I got the role as the hotel receptionist, had a dress made especially for me and I got flown to Sardinia to this amazing hotel and complex owned by the then Aga Khan for the role. A Bond Girl is forever! It doesn’t matter if you have a small cameo role or are the leading lady, you are forever known the world over as a Bond
When you took acting jobs in Bond movies, Carry On and Hammer House of Horror films, did you have any idea at the time that they would become cult movies in the future? I am lucky to have been associated with three major British film series that have all become cults. As to whether I knew at the time, I had no crystal ball! At the time, none of those films were iconic.
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