As he approaches his fourth big-screen outing as 007, Daniel Craig feels very comfortable in the role. He has made the part his own, rebuilding James Bond as a 21st century hero, a man with great emotional depth to accompany his remarkable skillset.

“I am a big fan of James Bond,” begins Craig, “and when I did Casino Royale (2006), if I had been presented with a script that had lots of gags and jokes in it, I would have said, ‘No, I can’t do this movie, because that is not my thing. I don’t know how to do that, I can’t pretend to be someone else, or to mimic someone else’.”

 Thankfully, the script for Casino Royale and the films that followed were very different beasts. “It was very stripped back,” says Craig. Indeed, the decision to remix the James Bond cocktail for the Daniel Craig movies was a shrewd move, shaking up the franchise and stirring up the audience.

The world’s most famous secret agent remains as popular as ever — Skyfall took over US$1.1 billion at the worldwide box office — and the interest in his latest outing, Spectre, is staggering. The second trailer for the movie, which was released in late July, notched up 3,000 views per second during its first days online.

WE’VE DONE THE BEST WE COULD
“Hubris is the enemy of filmmaking,” notes Craig. “To say, ‘Yes, we’ve got a great movie,’ would be foolish. But with Spectre, I think, we’ve done the best we could. That’s pretty good. And when you consider who we’ve got in the movie and who directed it, it’s a special collection of people.”

 Spectre, which is directed by returning Skyfall helmer Sam Mendes, not only features Craig but also Ben Whishaw as Q and Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, two characters reintroduced to the series in the last film. Ralph Fiennes also appeared in Skyfall and, in taking on the role of M, is set for greater involvement this time around.

 “Sam is great at casting and he got Ben Whishaw into these movies, and Ralph and Naomie. We couldn’t be better set with those three. I have a lot of trust in Sam. I think we’ve put the money in the right places and we tried to make the best movie we could. If you can’t get excited about making a film with these people, you shouldn’t be doing it!”

 This time around, Craig, Whishaw, Harris and Fiennes are asked to join forces to defeat at least two thoroughly intimidating, and very different, villains. There is actor Dave Bautista, who plays the muscled henchman, Hinx, and also Academy Award-winner Christoph Waltz, who stars as his superior, the mysterious Oberhauser. Waltz’s character, in particular, looks like another stellar entry into the actor’s pantheon of memorable on-screen bad guys.

 “Christoph has so much acting talent and we were so lucky to have him in the movie,” says Craig. “I think he has done a wonderful job. The part is complicated and I can’t really go into it. He has just done a wonderful job.”

 French actress Lea Seydoux and Italian Monica Bellucci also join the all-star line-up as two very different, and very modern, interpretations of the classic ‘Bond girl’. “She’s a consummate professional and brilliant and beautiful, and all of those things,” Craig says of Bellucci, who, at 51, defies any traditional stereotypes.

 “You should look after each other and take care of each other. That’s the most important thing. I loved working with her, and also Lea Seydoux who is a phenomenal actress, too.”

The top-class cast looks set to deliver a top-class story, which, like Skyfall, delves deeper into 007’s backstory. This is something of a departure for the James Bond films. How did Craig feel about it?

 “I wasn’t sure to begin with,” he concedes, “but I am really pleased with the way things have turned out. There was a conversation I had with Sam, who said, ‘You starred in Casino (Royale) and then Quantum Of Solace, and that was a direct storyline’. So when Skyfall came along, we thought, ‘What else happened in his past?’ And that really informed the story. It seemed right to continue that. Each time, Bond is affected by what’s come before so it’s good to explore that.” 

Does he feel pressure to repeat the box-office success of Skyfall? “Not really, because how do you do that? You’d be chasing your tail. The success was amazing, although I can’t really conceive what those figures mean. They’re beyond my understanding, but it is a very high-class problem. We had great success on the last movie so we had to make this better, and that for me is the challenge. That’s the best way to be working... when you are challenged.”

I AM NOT JAMES BOND...
The latest film has been shot in some wonderful locations and, according to Craig, the shooting schedule was littered with “pinch me” moments. “Shooting in Mexico City, that was like nothing I’d ever seen before on a film set,” he says, referencing Spectre’s beautifully choreographed Day of the Dead sequence. “Also, there was Rome,” the actor adds, “because of the way we were shooting. There were many, many moments. It did really feel like the first time again.”

This enthusiasm is endemic and both Craig and his fellow filmmakers have worked hard to make Spectre the best film it could be. “Every day, we’d look at the script, and we’d say, ‘Okay, this is good. Can we make this better?’ We’d work on the script on the set with the other actors, and we would try to make things better all the time. It was those sorts of challenges every day.”

For Craig, the past 10 years have proved an invigorating experience and he says that he owes an awful lot to the long-standing custodians of the James Bond series, producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

 “I said to Barbara 10 years ago that I needed the confidence to walk on set and to pretend to be James Bond,” says Craig, “because I am not James Bond. I’m a long way off being him. But if I was given the confidence to be a part of what was going on and to input into what the films were about, and if we could collude and collaborate, then I could give it a go. And they were receptive. They opened their arms. I think they listened to me and I couldn’t be happier with the way things have gone.”

Finally, there is a new Aston Martin (DB10) in this movie. How much of the driving was he able to do? “I am not James Bond and there are guys who are superb drivers, just eye-wateringly brilliant drivers and I’d be an idiot to not let them drive. They drive and I just pretend. Sorry... 

I know it may be a hard thing to hear, but I am just acting!”

I will watch Spectre only for Daniel Craig because.... Tell t2@abp.in 

 

BOND ON BOLLY

I have watched them and they are fabulous. The exuberance, the life, the celebration, which Bollywood movies showcase... that’s what movies are about really. In the end, it boils down to making movies for the audience that they enjoy watching and experience thrill which is what we try to do with Bond. Bollywood does that exceptionally well.

(Catch the exclusive interviews of the 007 world, on Hollywood Sundays this Sunday at 12 noon on &pictures)