Lois Chiles Talks About Being a Bond Girl

United Artists/Everett Collection Lois Chiles and Roger Moore in “Moonraker.”

James Bond films continue to entice for their exotic locales, the spy-world gadgetry, the power-mad villains and, of course, those glamorous Bond girls. With the arrival this week of “Skyfall,” the latest installment in the 50-year-old series, ArtsBeat checked in with Lois Chiles, who despite being endowed with the character name Holly Goodhead, helped complicate the Bond girl's pure sexpot image by playing an an astronaut opposite Roger Moore in 1979's “Moonraker.”

Ms. Chiles came to the role with some impressive credits, including roles in “The Way We Were” and “The Great Gatsby.” She went on to rol es in “Broadcast News,” as Ione Skye's mother in “Say Anything” and as one of J.R. Ewing's love interests on the TV series “Dallas.” Since moving back to New York in 2005, when she married the money manager Richard Gilder, she's lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where she devotes herself to painting and charitable work.

Sitting in the living room of her grand Fifth Avenue apartment Ms. Chiles, 65, took time to reflect on 1970s Hollywood and her turn as a Bond girl. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q.

On my way over here, I called a friend who is a Bond fanatic and told him that I was doing a Q&A with Lois Chiles. He said, “You're interviewing Dr. Holly Goodhead!?” He was intensely jealous.

A.

That's funny. I grew up in Alice, Texas, a small oil town with one theater that only showed Roy Rogers movies. So when I got the role I had never even seen a Bond film and had only had a vague notion about the idea of a Bond girl.

Q.

The 1970s must have been a great time to be a young actress in New York. What was it like?

Todd Heisler/The New York Times Ms. Chiles in New York in October.

A.

I came here for college and was doing some modeling when a boyfriend encouraged me to enroll in Sanford Meisner's acting class. An agent named Billy Barnes invited me to a cocktail party at his apartment and I opened the door and there was Tennessee Williams, Jerome Robbins, Maureen Stapleton, Irene Worth and the director John Schlesinger.

Q.

What was your first film?

A.

Billy Barnes signed me and got me my first role in an interracial love story filmed in Atlanta called “Together For Days” with Clifton Davis. My mother thinks it was my best work. You cannot find a copy of it.

Q.

That's not the case with your next movie, “The Way We Were.” How'd you land that?

A.

The producer Ray Stark called me and said, “Do you want to be a movie star more than anything?” It sounded like an obscene phone call or a joke but he said, “I'm at this bar with Sydney Pollack and Arthur Laurents and I'd like for you to come down and meet us because we're casting for ‘The Way We Were.'” So I met them and got the part. It seems crazy but it could happen like that in those days.

Q.

Was it considered a major coup when you were cast in “Moonraker”?

A.

There were mixed feelings. You have to realize t his was the 1970s and women were very upset about being portrayed as sexual objects. So becoming a Bond girl was not necessarily desirable. There was also this stigma that this was the peak and you were never going to work again. That was painful to hear.

Q.

But your character seems to have been a pioneer who countered the Bond girl cliché. You were an astronaut who flew a spaceship and a C.I.A. officer with as many gadgets as Bond. There's this great line when Bond says, “Where did you learn to fight like that, in NASA?” and you respond, “No, Vassar.”

A.

In a way, Holly was a bridge to the future. The previous Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” was fabulous but Barbara Bach's character was far more sexual than Holly. Wearing that yellow spacesuit during much of the movie didn't make me very alluring, and some fans were disappointed. But it was their concession to the women's movement.

Q.

Then again, your character's name was Dr. Holly Goodhead.

A.

I know. When I found that out I thought, “How would I ever tell my parents?”

Q.

You hear all these great stories about the Bond films' producer Albert R. Broccoli, known as Cubby. What was he like?

A.

Cubby was fabulous, a larger than life character. We filmed in Paris and he drove around the city in a Silver Cloud Rolls Royce. He was so generous and took lovely care of us, like a family. He was a consummate producer in that way. At night he'd invite everybody over and he'd make a big bowl of pasta.

Q.

Your career cooled somewhat after “Moonraker,” so is there truth to the notion that being a Bond Girl can be a risky career move?

A.

I had a lot going on after that role. My younger brother got very sick and I took time off to be w ith him. [He died at 25.] I also had a bad breakup with Don Henley. Real life intervened. I learned a lot and grew up a lot. I wasn't an ingénue anymore.

Q.

Is there a secret Bond Girl handshake? Are there Bond Girl reunions or any ongoing obligations as a Bond Girl alum?

A.

If there were a secret handshake, I wouldn't tell you about it. A few years ago Annie Lebovitz photographed us all for Vanity Fair and whenever a new movie comes out I get a call or two. There was a Bond documentary and an entire book about Bond girls. There is always something going on.

Q.

What would you tell Bérénice Marlohe, the new Bond Girl?

A.

In the last line of “Moonraker” I told Bond to “take me around the world one more time.” And in a way that is what the Bond movies do â€" they take you around the world, both literally and metaphorically. It's become such a big franchise. “Skyfall” will be a springboard for her because she'll now be known worldwide and become a bankable commodity. I would tell her to enjoy the ride.