Strawberry Fields was a fictional intelligence operative working for the British Secret Service and affiliated with Bolivia’s British consulate. The character was the secondary Bond girl in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace and was portrayed by British actress Gemma Arterton.
Biography
Bolivia
When James Bond takes it upon himself to work away from orders, following Dominic Greene to Bolivia, Fields is assigned the job of stopping Bond, turning him around, and putting him back on the first plane back to London.
Waiting for Bond and his ally René Mathis at La Paz airport, Fields is quick to assert herself over the British MI6 agent. However, Bond still feels he can take advantage due to her younger age. Shooting down Bond’s sarcasm, Fields threatens to leave Bond in jail overnight until their flight back to London the following morning. Bond doesn’t hesitate to argue against Fields’ threats. However, he tells her they still have “all night.”
Fields gets a taxi to a cheap hostel and informs Bond and Mathis that they are undercover as teachers on sabbatical. Bond demands that she gets back into the taxi, which she does after a second thought. Bond then checks the three into the Andean Grand Hotel, a five-star resort in the city center of Bolivia. When paired in a room with Bond, she succumbs to his charms and sleeps with him.
The Greene Planet Fundraiser Party
Feeling guilty about sleeping with Bond, Fields tells him she doesn’t think she can forgive herself. Bond kissed her all over the back, trying his charms again and trying to cheer her up; Bond offered to take her to a party Mathis had recently invited, the host of which was Dominic Greene. Fields agreed to the offer, and the pair traveled together. She said she had nothing to wear, and Bond replied that it was not a problem. Putting her to bed, she called Bond again to get hold of her, and they had sex again.
While at the party, Bond and Fields watch Greene’s environmentally targeted speech and are introduced to Colonel Carlos, the Bolivian Chief of Police, who is secretly a double agent working for the corrupt General Medrano. When Bond leaves Fields with Carlos and Mathis, she keeps a watchful eye on Bond’s movements. Noticing tensions rising between Bond, Camille Montes, and Dominic Greene, she decides to confront them. However, as she walks up the stairs, she realizes she must make a choice: still work to order and stop Bond from leaving with Camille or help Bond on his quest by allowing him to leave. When Greene orders his henchman Elvis to follow Bond and Camille, Fields trips him down the stairs, allowing Bond to flee but drawing attention to herself.
Death at the Andean Grand Hotel
Strawberry’s death
After leaving the party, Fields knows that Greene’s henchmen are following her. After leaving a note at the hotel reception for Bond saying “Run!” Fields’ fate is soon cemented when she is discovered by M lying naked on the bed in the hotel room, her dead body covered in oil. When Bond arrives back, he tells M that the use of oil is a misdirection from Greene as he plans to control Bolivia’s water supply. Managing to break free from M’s guards escorting Bond from the premises, the spy confronts M, telling her that Fields showed true bravery, and he demands to see that act written in her final report.
In the act of poetic justice at the end, Bond leaves Greene stranded in the desert with only a can of engine oil to drink.
Behind the scenes
Director Marc Forster found Arterton, a witty actress, and selected her from a reported 1,500 candidates. One of the casting directors asked her to audition for the role, having seen her portray Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Globe Theatre. Arterton said Fields was “not so frolicsome” as other Bond girls but “fresh and young, not … a femme fatale.”Arterton described Fields as a homage to the 1960s Bond girls, comparing her red wig to that of Diana Rigg, who played Tracy Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Rigg, alongside Honor Blackman, is one of her favorite Bond girls.
Arterton had to film her character’s death scene the first day on the set, where she was covered head to toe in non-toxic black paint. Although she found the experience unpleasant, she believes the scene will be an iconic part of the film. The character’s first name, which is a reference to the Beatles song “Strawberry Fields Forever” and the places in both Liverpool and New York with the same name, is never actually uttered on screen; when Bond asks her for her name, she replies, “Just Fields.”
One of the actresses up for the part of Strawberry Fields was Stana Katic, who instead was cast in the minor role of Corinne Veneau.
