Newest James Bond film is first to be directed by an Asian American: Cary Joji Fukunaga

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Director Cary Fukunaga goes over a scene with actor Daniel Craig.

The latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die, is the first in the franchise to be directed by an Asian American, Cary Joji Fukunaga.

The much anticipated film, supposedly the last Bond film for the British actor Daniel Craig is one of the most profitable and fabled movie franchises opens in theaters today (Oct. 8, 2021) after several postponed release dates due to COVID-19. 

He shared that his father, a Sansei born in an WWII internment camp, never talked about what it was like for his family during that dark period when Japanese Americans were incarcerated.

“I think it shaped me, that multigenerational struggle,” Fukunaga told the Hollywood Reporter. ”The psychological trauma inherited from [my father’s] childhood defines who I am, and I think that internment process was incredibly destabilizing for the entire Japanese American population.”

Like many Asian American children, classmates made fun of Fukunaga's last name. He received insults such as “commie” or “F*ck-anaga,” although they did not bother him much.

READ the entire article in the Hollywood Reporter.

The Japanese American filmmaker revealed in an interview with Hollywood Reporter that his growing up in a multiracial, blue-collar family household in Oakland shaped the global perspective in his filmmaking and helped him get the Bond directing job.

Growing up in the racially diverse Bay Area and having a Swedish mother gave Fukunaga an appreciation for different cultures which was critical for Bond producer Michael Wilson. 

Wilson called the 44-year old director “well-traveled and very cosmopolitan,” noting that, “He’s very much a global person.” Fukunaga is fluent in Spanish and French and able to converse in Portuguese and Italian.

After his parents divorced, his Japanese father married an Argentinian, while his Swedish mom married a Mexican American so he has multi-racial siblings as well. Fukunaga told the Inquirer that he experienced the duality of his heritage: As a teenager he identified Japanese; "But then, I lived in Japan for a while and realized I’m also pretty American."

“But I would like to think that I could adapt to many different places. I don’t know which culture I would say that I identify with more. When I meet people like me who has lived in many different places, with multicultural backgrounds, we identify with each other more than any other place or race.”

He said that what he had for sure was the work ethic of his immigrant ancestors. “Yeah, definitely. Our family members are all 20th-century immigrants to the United States, so they came with a strong work ethic. That has definitely affected the way I work and the discipline that I have with my work. 

"And also, my (paternal) grandparents who are farming-class Japanese, and also Imperial Buddhists, believe in humility over everything else. So you can never think that you are more important than anyone else. That is a good strategy for doing good work.”