James Bond is back — with two new gun-toting beauties at his side.

Following in the high-heeled footsteps of actresses like Jane Seymour, Halle Berry and Eva Green, Naomie Harris and Bérénice Marlohe take on the lofty title of Bond Girl in Skyfall, the latest installment of the illustrative spy franchise that sees Daniel Craig in his third run as 007. And both actresses knew they had some big stilettos to fill.

“I think you definitely feel the pressure of joining a huge franchise like this,” Harris, 36, who stars as Eve/Miss Moneypenny, told Celebuzz. “It is overwhelming. But my friend gave me a brilliant piece of advice. He said, ‘Look, just treat is as though it’s a little independent movie and this is your role to create and do anything that you want to do with it.’ So that’s for me how I got over the fear and the worry about it. Because ultimately, people want to see original characters and they want to see you owning it and having fun with it.”

But Marlohe — whose Bond Girl goes by simply Sévérine, as opposed to the typical double-entendre name — drew on the past films for inspiration. “For me, I was so excited to get to play with [a franchise] I loved,” the Parisian actress-model, 33, said. “When I see the Bond movies, I can feel that huge freedom, you’re like dreaming…you can feel like there is no limit. You can go far. Also, the music [and] the orchestration [is] so powerful. So all that made me feel very connected with this universe.”

“I was excited to create a real human being with the substance, complexity and emotions we go through,” Marlohe added. “You know, in this social life, we all have a mask sometimes and there’s a lot of things going on that we won’t necessarily show. It interested me very much to create that.”

Director Sam Mendes — the mastermind behind such big-screen success as American Beauty (1999) and Revolutionary Road (2008) — allowed both actresses to take some creative license with the parts in Skyfall, which hit U.S. theaters Friday and marks the 50th anniversary of Bond. “We did one meeting with Daniel [Craig] and Sam [Mendes] considering, for instance, my scenes and what was our own point of views or own specific moments,” Marlohe said. “And from that, we never had any rehearsals.”

“For me, it was really liberating because…I’ve never really has the director give you that much freedom,” Harris added. “Sam Mendes just said, ‘Here’s John Logan, one or our writers, sit with him. If there’s any lines that don’t work for you, if there’s any part of the scene that doesn’t work for you, if you want to take your character in a different direction, everything is up for grabs. You can play with it.’ I mean who does that? Especially on a movie of this scale. It was a huge honor.”

For Marlohe, Mendes’ loose rein allowed her to dream up her own persona for Sévérine. “[It] was fantastic because I had to create everything in my own imagination, the connection with Silva (Javier Bardem) and Bond. And then you are…coming in with that but you don’t know what the other person has created. And this is like in life, so then there is room for accidents. You don’t know what will happen in the next second, and that was fantastic.”

But Harris didn’t tweak the writers’ vision for Eve. “I love my character,” she said. “I love the character’s journey. I was pleased with everything. So I didn’t really have anything to add to that, but there is a sense of freedom you get when you’re given that much free reign. I was a great experience.”

Skyfall marks the latest installment in the James Bond film series — and this one certainly doesn’t skim on the eye candy.

The movie, starring Daniel Craig as 007, introduces two new Bond girls to the mix: French actress Bérénice Marlohe and British babe Naomie Harris. Like many of series’ past sultry vixens, these ladies are bound to get entangled in the famous spy’s business (and perhaps his sheets as well).

So what’s the deal with these new characters — and how do they fit into the Bond universe?

In Skyfall, Marlohe, 33, plays Severine, the doomed heroine caught between a man who relentlessly controls her (Javier Bardem) and another who promises freedom (Craig).

Meanwhile, Harris steps into the role of Eve Moneypenny, the assistant to Judi Dench‘s M at the British Secret Service. The 36-year-old is the fifth actress to take on the famous part in the franchise.

Though there may have only a handful of Moneypennys, over 40 Bond girls have aided (and sometimes foiled) the famous spy over the film series’ 23 movies.

From Halle Berry to original Bond babe Ursula Andress to the only Mrs. 007 Diana Rigg, launch the gallery above to see how Bond girls have evolved over time.

Get to know the Skyfall’s sexy stars, below.

If the seemingly unkillable James Bond ever does buy the farm, he deserves a truly spectacular death. And he may get just that in the latest advance clip from Skyfall, posted at Yahoo! Movies.

In the sequence from the 23rd 007 adventure, opening Nov. 9, Bond (Daniel Craig) is wrestling with a foe on top of a moving train that’s crossing a very high bridge. Before the train pulls into a tunnel, a sniper’s rifle shot rings out. Bond falls off the train and plunges hundreds of feet into the water below. Firing the shot is one of his own colleagues, Eve (Naomie Harris), under direct orders from Bond’s boss, M (Judi Dench).

Is this the end of 007? Has the new movie given him license to die?

All right, we don’t really believe Bond gets killed; if anyone can find a way to survive this predicament, it’s 007. Still, things don’t look good for him.

Granted, it’s not like Eve is trying to hit Bond. She’s aiming for the other guy — but she can’t get a clear shot — and she tells M, who’s listening remotely from her office. With the train approaching the tunnel, Eve will soon lose Bond’s opponent.

“Take the bloody shot!” insists M, knowing full well that Eve may kill Bond in the process. Them’s the breaks in the spy biz.

Or are they? Maybe M really wants him dead? The early reviews of the film, which are overwhelmingly positive, suggest that the movie focuses heavily on the complicated relationship between the impulsive spy and his politically-minded boss, with M becoming involved in a scandal. Maybe the uneasy relationship between the intelligence chief and her least secretive secret agent finally come to a head?

You can watch the report above from Celebuzz‘ The Daily Buzz team on the latest Skyfall news, including some of the “Take the Shot” sequence. You can also watch the full clip from the movie below.