Daniel Craig: I'm only borrowing the character

Oct 29 2008 By Kate Whiting, Liverpool Daily Post

DANIEL Craig is looking tired and it’s hardly surprising. With his second Bond film Quantum Of Solace about to open, he is arguably the most in-demand actor in the world right now.

But the lines around his blue eyes don’t dull their sparkle and the slight sound of fatigue in his voice doesn’t diminish his obvious enthusiasm for the role.

"I’ve been talking all day, I’m wound up like a coil now," the Chester-born star says by way of apology.

Dressed in a grey suit, with checked handkerchief in his breast pocket, a black waistcoat and crisp white shirt, Craig looks every inch the slick M16 agent. Apart maybe from the sling around his right arm.

"Damn, I was trying to hide that," he jokes, at mention of the shoulder injury.

"I really don’t know when I did it. I think I tore it a few years ago, maybe even before I started as Bond, there’s no way of telling, but doing two Bond movies didn’t help," he adds.

At just over an hour and forty minutes, Quantum Of Solace is one of the shortest of the 22 Bond films, but it’s also the most action-packed and Daniel is justifiably proud to say he did most of his own stunts.

He says: "I didn’t push myself any further (than on Casino Royale), but I was involved in the action sequences a lot earlier.

"The shooting wasn’t harder, in certain respects it was easier, because I knew what I was doing this time. But we had time restraints on this movie, there was a potential actor’s strike happening, so we had a cut-off date.

"I had to film and in the evening rehearse and in my day’s off rehearse, so that made it more physically challenging."

The film is the first direct sequel in the Bond franchise and picks up just 20 minutes after Casino Royale ended, as 007 jets around the globe on a personal mission to avenge the death of his beloved Vesper and learn more about the secret organisation Quantum.

From the opening car chase and rooftop chase sequence in Italy to the desert-set climax, the pace is relentless.

"The rooftop scene was tough," admits Daniel, who turned 40 during filming.

"It was tough because I was back and forward to that scene, I had to revisit the set two or three times. The crew continued filming there, obviously Siena didn’t shut down for us, they very graciously gave us their rooftops, but it was physically and logistically difficult to shoot.

"There were five, six, cameras on cranes and there’s an aerial camera and resetting is difficult, plus the fact that I’m tied off and jumping over roofs. So it was tough but also a lot of fun to shoot – and a very nice view!"

Daniel’s first Bond outing took more at the box office than any other. It was nominated for nine Bafta Awards and won the actor an army of female fans for the tight blue trunks scene. It is a look he has sworn never too repeat.

"It wasn’t in the script this time and I’m not going to get the trunks out just for a giggle, they’re done and dusted."

Casino Royale also silenced certain die-hard fans who claimed Daniel was too blond and too short to play their screen hero. "I got over that a long time ago," he says of the criticism.

"I half expected what happened because I understood people’s passion for these movies and that they would react passionately to a new thing. The important thing was to get it right and do the best Bond movie we could.

"A few days before the premiere, I knew we had a good film, I knew that we’d done all we could, but beyond that I had no bench mark.

"As you well know, most of the films I’ve made, it’s not all been about box office, so it was amazing. It was a huge surprise, but very pleasant."

After Casino Royale’s success, surely now there’s more pressure on Quantum to do well?

"It’s better this way round," Daniel says. "If we’d had a dud last time, this would be a very very difficult process, so yes it gives added pressure, but it is good pressure and we’ve just got to utilise the impetus of it and work on the success, as they say."

Growing up in Hoylake, Daniel attended Hilbre School and got a taste for acting thanks to Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre. "The Everyman was a big part of my life growing up," he says. "I saw some of the best actors of their generation and it was a home from home for me at the time. It was inspirational for me."

After leaving Merseyside, Craig headed to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Dramabefroe winning his breakthrough role in the BBC drama Our Friends In The North.

Since then, the roles have come thick and fast from playing Angelina Jolie’s love interest in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider to poet Ted Hughes alongside Gywneth Paltrow’s Sylvia Plath.

He played the late Paul Newman’s son in Sam Mendes’ acclaimed Road To Perdition in 2002 before the Bond franchise came his way.

With Craig in the role, the Bond franchise has been stripped back to basics, with 007 now a ruthless bare-knuckled fighter, who doesn’t need to rely on gadgets. The suave spy has fewer catchy one-liners and is seemingly a more emotional man.

In Quantum Of Solace we see Bond team up with the sultry Camille (Olga Kurylenko) as their shared need for revenge unites them against a Bolivian general who is doing a deal with a philanthropic businessman.

As Bond gets nearer the truth, his relationship with his MI6 boss M, played by Dame Judi Dench, is thrown to the fore.

"What we took from Casino Royale was this whole element of trust, who to trust and who your allies are and certainly M is an ally, so solidifying that relationship was incredibly important and I think we’ve got to a really good point now where anything’s possible, but getting Judi on screen as much as possible, that’s a no-brainer."

Daniel’s off-screen relationship with the veteran actress is just as tight, he reveals. "Judi does like a joke and we try to keep things as light as possible on set. They’re long days, you’re working with people very intensely and I think you’ve got to keep things fresh."

"One of the biggest things about doing this movie is we’re away from home for a long time and everyone’s missing their families and you’ve got to keep things happy," adds Daniel, who has a daughter from his marriage to Scottish actress Fiona Loudon and is in a long-term relationship with American film producer Satsuki Mitchell.

"If it’s not a happy set, it’s sort of silly, so I crack jokes," he says.

As for risking life and limb again as Bond in future, Daniel says he would love to make another film, but admits he doesn’t know how many more times he’ll reprise the role.

"I genuinely would just love to do another one, but maybe I’m just superstitious, or just stupidly pessimistic, I don’t know, I’m just going to see how it goes.

"I’m only borrowing the character. This is great, but someone else is going to come along and probably, hopefully do a better job than I’ve done and move it on, so it’s not mine, it’s Ian Fleming’s and the Broccoli’s.

"I want to say something like I’m the caretaker, but that’s a really naff thing to say," he continues, with a laugh.

"I’m enjoying playing it and I do think we can do anything in the next movie, I genuinely believe that. We can introduce Moneypenny and Q back into the roles, we’ve just got to offer them to the best actors we can find.

"It’s hard to believe, but there’s a generation of people who don’t know Bond movies, they don’t watch them in the way I’ve watched them growing up, so just introducing the characters and expecting to understand who they are is the wrong thing to do, we have to reintroduce them and earn the right to have them."

DON’T miss Friday’s Daily Post for our review of Quantum of Solace.

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