New Delhi, July 13 -- KARLOVY VARY - The person who has decided which actor becomes James Bond for the past four decades sat in a Czech spa town last week and admitted she still cannot explain exactly how she makes that call.

Debbie McWilliams collected a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Saturday, marking roughly 40 years since she first took the role of casting director for the Bond franchise. Fourteen actors have worn that tuxedo under her watch. She has never once read an Ian Fleming novel.

The gap between the books and the screen, she argues, is the point. "I've never read a James Bond book in my life," McWilliams told The Hollywood Reporter at the festival. "I go purely on the script." T...