The new bond James Bond movie.
A time to die, is out in theaters.
And since it's Daniel Craig's last film,
many are wondering at the next
film will feature a female 00.
Well that got me thinking about
the role real female agents play
in keeping us safe every day.
So I turned to a real life former spy.
Christina Hillsberg,
who lives right here in Western
Washington. I
thought it would be really fun
to talk to you about the world of espionage,
the world that you were in,
and I think it's really on top of
people's minds because a lot of folks
are talking about a female possibly
taking over the franchise for 007.
The world's moved on Commander Bond.
If you would 002 years.
So stay in your lane.
You get in my way.
I will put a bullet in your knee.
What do you think about that?
There has been so much buzz about it,
you know, and I think it would be very
exciting to see a woman in this role.
But also as you know,
Phoebe Waller Bridge who all note is,
only this second woman to have a
screenwriter credit in the Bond
franchise in almost 60 years.
She actually responded with Bond is bond.
We just need to cook up someone to rival him
and I think that would be great as well.
You know a woman blazing her own trail,
and as we know they do exist and
it would be great to see that.
On screen,
I completely agree.
Actually that's perfectly well stated.
What do people approach you about?
What are they most curious about
when it comes to spies and espionage?
Well, I think people ask often.
Is it like the movies and I like to say
that James Bond is very entertaining,
but when it comes to espionage and
tradecraft, he's not the best example.
You're causing an explosion or an
elaborate car chase everywhere you go.
That's not a good thing.
You want to be committing.
As Phoenix in the shadows,
right under the noses of foreign governments
without them realizing
it's being done, you know,
but one of the things this latest
movie no time to die does great.
Is the portrayal of women you know,
even though we still have
James Bond, Daniel Craig in the role,
we're seeing a very big difference
in how the women are portrayed.
We're not seeing the stereotypical Bond girl.
We're seeing what they're
now calling bond women,
but I'm just gonna call them women, right?
Yeah, open bond women.
Let's just call them women because
they are fully capable, you know.
We've got Leshawna Lynch as no me,
the 00 agent who is incredible.
We've got on a darmas who's playing a
A green CIA operative and she steals
the show in her scene. It's just
fantastic. And then of
course you see a return
of his love interest, which Dr.
Madeleine Swann played by Lea Seydoux
and you don't see that very often where
the story art continues into the next film.
And I think that is wonderful as well.
We're seeing more representation,
which I think is really exciting for women.
I love that. And it's so true
and it's exciting to see you
would absolutely don't see that.
And every time there was a bond woman,
it was a woman in a bathing suit.
And I know times have changed.
But how important is it that we all know
the role that women have played when
it comes to espionage for our country?
It's so important. You know,
from Virginia Hall in World War Two,
she was the most highly decorated female
civilian during World War Two and she was
spying working with both Britain and EU S.
You know from Virginia Hall
all the way to Gina Haspel,
who was the first female
director of the CIA in 2018.
Women have been playing a huge
role in espionage for decades,
and so it's about time.
We depict that and let people see how it
really happens and the fact that there
are women who are chasing terrorists.
They're holding asset meetings.
They're writing for the president there,
briefing policymakers, you know.
They are playing such a large role beyond
what you've seen in so many movies.
What is it typical?
I don't know. I would say day,
like in in in the life of a spy.
I mean, you know.
Obviously bond is no longer a secret
agent when he's blowing things up.
But what is it like?
Well, it can vary. From day to day,
which I think is one of the
things that makes it so exciting.
So if you're in the Directorate of
Operations, which is where I worked
in the latter part of my career,
you may be meeting with
an intelligence asset,
which means you're conducting a
surveillance detection route to and
from that meeting because it's very
important that you're not bringing
a local intelligence service,
local Security Service with you so that
you're keeping your asset and yourself safe.
The people who choose to work with
CIA often do so at great risk to
themselves and their families,
so it's really crucial that
you have solid tradecraft.
And if you're on the analytics side,
which is where I was for
the bulk of my career,
you know you're you're going into work,
you're reading the intelligence
traffic from overnight.
You're answering taskings
from U S policymakers.
You're writing for what's called
the President's daily brief book.
You may be going downtown,
you know, giving briefings.
It's very exciting.
There's always something different going on,
and it's a really fantastic
community of camaraderie as well.
Because you're all working for a mission,
and I think that that
can really unite people.
And there are some really incredible people.
At the CIA,
both men and women,
absolutely people who have
saved our country in ways we
probably will never ever know.
That's the thing you know.
You hear about intelligence failures,
but for all of those intelligence
failures you hear about,
there are many, many more successes
that you won't hear about.
And so the people who are choosing
to you know work in this line
of work at the CIA are doing so,
knowing that their successes
probably won't be known.
That was so great thanks to her for sharing.