Denise Richards Avoided Playing A Cliché Trophy Wife In ‘Paper Empire’: ‘I Wanted To Try To Bring Some Depth’

Denise Richards drew on her real life for her latest role.

In the upcoming series “Paper Empire”, the actress plays the ex-wife of a crypto fraudster, which gave her and exciting new acting challenge, as she told Variety.

“I thought it might be interesting and challenging to do a project where I don’t know what’s happening,” Richards explained. “Because sometimes in life, we really don’t know what’s going to happen. And so I just took every scene that I was ever given and based everything off of that.”

And they her character, Bentley, may seem like regular arm candy for a rich man, Richards insisted that she “didn’t want to play the cliche trophy wife. I wanted to try to bring some depth, as much as I could, to my character.”

The actress also shared how she was able to relate to her character thanks to experiences from her own life.

“Especially with, you know, Robert Davi’s character being taken off [by the FBI] and having to go away and what that would mean with her entire family falling apart,” she said. “Which obviously I can relate to as far as a divorce. I’ve been through that. So I really just wanted to find ways where I can bring some empathy and also show that she really loved him.”

Richards added, “And it wasn’t just about their lifestyle and money. Although she loves that lifestyle and would love to keep it. It’s easier to go from poor to rich than rich to poor. You know, I’ve been through it all, I really have. Many levels. So it was something that I thought would be really interesting.”

In the interview, the actress also looks back on her role in the 1999 James Bond film “The World is Not Enough”, recalling getting “panned” by critics for her character and performance.

“It broke my heart that people were making fun of me,” she recalled. “‘Oh, really? You’re wearing shorts and you’re a nuclear scientist?’”

Richards continued, “I’m playing a Bond girl. If I wore a lab coat and pants and a suit, then [fans] would have been upset, like, ‘Okay, why isn’t she looking like a sexy Bond girl?’”

With the hunt on to find a new James Bond, she was also asked if she believes it might be time for a woman to play the iconic spy, or if the character should continue to be a man.

“Definitely a male Bond, I’m sorry,” Richards said. “And I might get a lot of flack for this. But the fact of the matter is the Bond franchise was based off of a book franchise and Bond was male in the books and I believe [they should] continue with that. I do, and people may shit on me for it, but I believe it. They could do a spin-off where a Bond girl becomes the female Bond. But I think James Bond is James Bond.”