New Bond girl Ana de Armas on working with Ryan Gosling, Keanu Reeves: 'I've been very lucky'

Actress Ana de Armas had the same reaction a lot of us would have about meeting Ryan Gosling, back when she had to audition in front of him before being cast as his love interest in the 2017 movie Blade Runner 2049.

“Oh, hell yes I was nervous,” de Armas revealed in the April/May issue of American Airlines’s in-flight magazine, American Way. “I auditioned three times for [the role of] Joi, and the third time, I knew he would be there. I was shaking so badly. They put you in a room together and make you read things, to see how your chemistry is. I wish I had the tape of that meeting.”

Gosling is just one of the many Hollywood heavyweights that de Armas has worked with in the past few years. She’s counted Keanu Reeves as a co-star, too, and says they’re “so close” now. She’s finishing up the thriller Deep Water, with Ben Affleck, who she’s been photographed kissing, and soon she’ll play the starring role of Norma Jeane in the Marilyn Monroe story Blonde. Brad Pitt is producing that one.

“I’ve been very lucky — because these men are all very handsome — but the best part of it is who they are as people,” de Armas said. “I’ve had the best partners.”

Already, her most famous leading man is Daniel Craig, who will play James Bond for the final time in No Time to Die, scheduled to come in November. (He also co-starred with her on last year’s Knives Out.)

Her onscreen reunion with Craig almost didn’t happen. De Armas, 31, was hesitant to step into the high-profile role of Bond’s female sidekick.

Read more: Waller-Bridge ‘gave voice’ to De Armas’ Bond character

“Bond girls have been portrayed for so many years with a specific type of woman. I associate it with some sort of perfection and beauty standards beyond the normal. Things that I didn’t match,” the Cuban-born de Armas said. “I was shocked when the director called me to say ‘The character is not written yet but we want you do it.’”

Halle Berry, Michelle Yeoh, Jane Seymour and many other women have played the role over the decades.

“Usually these women [Bond girls], they need to be rescued. Or they die. Or are evil,” de Armas said. “I needed to read that script. And it took a little, but they sent me the scenes. It's important, because I want to bring something else to the story.”

De Armas’s character is a CIA agent who’s assigned to help Bond. She was convinced.

No Time To Die comes to cinemas in November.