ACTOR Daniel Craig has spoken of how being taken to the theatre when he was a child in his native Liverpool encouraged him to make a career out of the stage.

In an interview ahead of the release of his latest film, the James Bond star explained that his mother, Carol Olivia, an art teacher, used to take him to watch performances where they lived.

He said: “I was just amazed that one minute people were on stage, then they would come off and be completely different.

“It was magic. And it obviously had a deep, deep effect on me.

“I was always impressed by loud people, too, which is a bad thing to be impressed by, because most actors are drunks, and, as the evening goes on, they get louder and more entertaining – well, hopefully more entertaining.”

He also spoke of how acting gave him a chance during the economic depression that hit the city in the 80s.

He said: “Liverpool at that time was going through a depression: it was just horrendous. I was failing miserably at school, and my mother said, 'Well, I know you want to act, so get out and do it'.”

Craig, who spent part of his childhood in Fairfield, Liverpool, and later Hoylake, Wirral, went on to study at the National Youth Theatre, then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1991.

He added: “And it all kind of worked out. My mother was very, very relieved.”

Craig’s latest film, Defiance, is out at cinemas on January 9.