Daniel Craig

Interview By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

It's been a life-changing couple of years for Daniel Craig. Two years ago, he was talented, but still relatively unknown up-and-comer who had made his mark in films like Elizabeth, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider , and Munich.

However, the world around the English actor as he knew underwent a complete metamorphosis when he stepped into the role of his country's most iconic secret agent, James Bond. Daniel's debut film as Bond, Casino Royale, became inarguably the most phenomenally successful 007 film in decades, reintroducing author Ian Fleming's debonair globe-trotting spy and ladies' man for the 21st century moviegoer.

Now, Craig is set to continue his reign with the newest 007 film, Quantum of Solace. As the 40 year-old actor discussed the film with us, there was one question that has burned on the minds of certainly everyone who knows about the film's release, what does the film's rather oddly cerebral title of Quantum of Solace even mean anyway'

'It was an Ian Fleming short story,' Daniel explains, 'It's a discussion. It wouldn't make a good Bond movie. There's literally a discussion at a party, the boring party that he's at, and he starts talking with this guy about love, about what it is to love, and how love screws you up. So it's a very kind of man conversation going on. He helps tell this story about this couple, who go through this horrendous sort of thing in their relationship. And the husband and she forgive each other, forgive each other, forgive each other until something breaks and it's gone. It's over. They cannot go back. They live in separate parts of the house and they hate each other.'

'They write each other letters because they can't talk to each other,' he adds, 'And basically, he talks about that when that moment's gone, it's your 'quantum of solace', that moment in a relationship when you don't have it anymore, forget it, walk away. And it's kind of what the idea was that he's fallen in love at the end of this movie and he thinks this woman betrayed him. He thinks the only reason this woman is with him is to get his money to fund this organization and he wants his quantum of solace. He just wants it and that's how it came out. And they showed it to me and I went, What' That's great.'

Most actors would normally be terrified at the possible typecasting that may inadvertently come along with being so tied to a franchise, especially an internationally iconic character like James Bond. However, Craig is rather unusually cool, calm, and perfectly at ease with being the latest actor to have stepped into the very big shoes of 007. We asked the actor what makes him so incredibly optimistic in particular about this long-running franchise's 22nd entry.

'Well, it was fairly easy doing this, because we all wanted to continue the story,' he replies, 'We wanted to finish this story off. It was just we'd gone down this road of him picking the onion skins off this organization, the bad guys, and he'd fallen in love and he was going to go run off and give up his job.'

'And so, it was kind of that colliding and Vesper's death and things and we wanted to sort of finish off that,' Craig continues, 'And hopefully, by the end of Quantum of Solace, we have this whole character and we can do what we want. I mean, we can go anywhere we want to now.'

The unusually cool, calm, and confident demeanor Daniel embodies seems to have paid off in spades. He's gone from the British press railing on him, crying blasphemy for his being cast because he was 'too blond' to being largely praised by film critics and audiences alike as probably the best and most reinvigorating Bond since original 007 Bond actor Sean Connery. We asked Craig whether he feels the enormous success Casino Royale has reaped has now silenced all his critics and nay-sayers.

'I don't think they probably have,' he believes, 'I'm sure there are people who are just as critical as they are and will probably gain some more critics by doing what we're doing. But I think that's the nature of it. I worked to make people react and hopefully they'll react positively, but if they don't, then it's all part of the same thing.'

However, Casino Royale did not stop a few film critics from bemoaning at the lack of the franchise's more campy excesses, including longtime stock characters like flirtatious secretary Moneypenny and exasperated inventor Q, as well as the latter's pension for outlandish gadgets, and the introduction of a more ruthless and chillingly cold Bond, straight out of the pages of author Ian Fleming's original novels. We asked Daniel whether he feels his films have benefited greatly from this more serious and realistic new direction.

'I do feel now that we have the story and a solid character now,' Craig says, 'And therefore, introducing characters like Moneypenny and Q'The submarine base, if it's real, it should be in the movie. And I love all those things, but if we drop them as gags, they're just gags. And I just don't think that works. There's a generation of people who haven't seen a Bond movie and I want to introduce it to them as look how much fun this is, as opposed to saying, oh, look how funny this is and get the in-joke.'

However, Craig is quick to reveal that he is a fan of the franchise's campier roots on the big screen.

'My favorite is From Russia With Love,' Daniel shares, 'I thought that had a major impact on my mind. It's always been one of my favorite films. But, then, Goldfinger was on. The first film I saw in the cinema was Live And Let Die with Roger Moore and I loved that. Just the sort of boat sequence in that is spectacular. It still is quite spectacular. I don't know how much it had an influence on my life. I couldn't tell you. With hindsight, probably, an awful lot.'

However, Quantum of Solace continues to show the now over 45 year-old franchise taking chances. The first new radical move was the rather unusual choice of Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland's Marc Forster as director.

'He's not the most obvious choice,' Craig says, 'You look at his sort of resume, it really doesn't say. There's not an awful lot of action in there, but what Marc is, well, he's a great director, but he is a lover of movies and he loves the whole process. And look at his films, how varied they are, from Monster's Ball to Neverland to The Kite Runner. And each one is individual. You'd say there were different directors, if you were to look at them blindly, I think. And that is what I think he brought to this. He brought this, here we go, it's a Bond movie.'

'We don't get chances to make movies like this very often,' he continues, 'Let's give it a go. And the discussions we had before we started shooting with just the classic Bonds we love and the classic movies of the sixties that we loved. Whatever we do, we got to make a movie that people will remember because it's visually stunning, it goes to the best locations, and it will be remembered as a stunning kind of Bond movie. And beyond that, we'll just apply what we know about moviemaking. I mean, look, I would have worked with him on anything. It just happens that we kind of met on this. It's kind of strange, but anyhow.'

The other seemingly radical change this time out is that this is the first Bond movie where he doesn't get the girl ' into bed, at least.

'Roger Moore said this and his answer was he apparently had eight women in one movie,' Daniel says, 'I'm going like, eight' That's a lot. Where is the plot, I mean. It probably is, I don't know. I think they're other Bond women that he doesn't actually sleep with. I think the ones that kind of bash him around the head are the ones that he doesn't sleep with. It might be a record, but we'll try to break a few more in the next one. It could have been economics.'

Though there's one thing that has remained a constant and has only gotten more exciting in the Daniel Craig Bond era, the incredible, thrilling action and stunts, many of which the actor does himself.

'I don't think I realized how difficult or hard it was going to be,' he reveals, 'But I can't actually think how hard it was now because once you're in it, you're just doing it. It's a job and it's everyday and you're getting on with it. It's just we got somewhere. We learned a load of lessons the last time on Casino Royale. But, unfortunately, the stunt team seemed to think I could do these things and they volunteered me. They're like, oh, you'll do that.'

'So I find myself jumping out of a thirty-foot window onto the top of a bus and literally going, what the hell has happened to my life'!' Daniel adds, 'But it's an interesting part of the movie. I just really selfishly do want the audience to not want to snap out of the action. I want them to go, oh, it's him! It's still him! And to be part of, and hopefully, the excitement rises. We'll continue doing it and we'll do it in different ways and trying to find, but we have to keep thinking about it.'

This begs the next question for Daniel, how many death-defying stunts can one actor muster in a career.

'Or how many painkillers can he take'' he replies, 'That's the question. I don't know. I do stuff in this film and it hurts. But I kind of go, well, I'm jumping onto a balcony. Of course, it hurts. It would be pretty stupid of me to think it wouldn't hurt. But it's part of the job and it's part of'you're adrenaline is going.'

'At the end of the night, when I get home, I ache, I get in the bath, I take a couple of painkillers, I have a shot of scotch, and I go to sleep,' Craig adds, 'Literally, it's like that. It's a Bond movie. I want to be there and I want to be doing this stuff, so it's not like I have other things to do, so fine, let's take it, let's do it.'

We asked Craig if he enjoys the perks that now come with being James Bond as an actor.

'Look, there isn't any doubts my life has changed and it's changed very positively,' Daniel says, 'It's kind of a pain in the ass, but that's kind of what you live with. And this is no hint to a lie, the best thing about doing this job is the job itself. I love working, but I'm on a set with people who are at the top of their game. I mean, absolute, stunt people, special effects people, directors, designers, cameramen, and they all want to do the job. They're all there and they're all excited about doing it.'

'Going to work and being that excited about my job, that's the biggest perk I could have, and that's genuine,' he adds, 'I've got a few tuxedos, but I hate wearing them. It was great to wear them at the London premiere and we got a premiere in Tokyo, which is going to be a big gala evening. I'm going to stick one of them, but I'm not comfortable wearing them. I prefer wearing about normal suits, like I can possibly help it. The one in the movies, they're all in pieces, that's the problem. They're all kind of ripped and torn.'

Daniel also shrugs off the impact Bond has had on his celebrity in dealing with the most invasive trappings of international fame: the paparazzi.

'I try and go,' Craig says, 'I mean, the one thing I think we all think to do is hiding behind bars, sort of hiding yourself. At the moment, we're promoting the movie. It's out there, so to expect it to be quiet at the moment would be silly. When we were out for dinner recently, you kind of go in and you try to cut in. I try to sneak in as quietly as possible and just don't try and get too pent up about it. There's craziness. There is proper craziness. I have no kind of understanding of it, but it's part of the business, I suppose.'

In being part of such a long-running and legendary film franchised, we asked Craig what past Bond actors he has gotten to meet.

'I just met Roger Moore for the first time at an event in London,' he shares, 'He's a sweetheart and very funny and kind of wicked sense of humor. I know Pierce Brosnan quite well. I've socialized with him quite well. But everybody else, no, I haven't met. There's not many others, are there''

We also asked Daniel whether or not there's anymore Ian Fleming titles to use for the next Bond film and which, if any, will be used.

'There's a couple of them,' he answers, 'We're going to have to get our thinking caps on. I've already planned out sort of 40 minutes of lying on a beach with a cocktail, which I think will open the movie beautifully, that'll be a conversation I'm going to have to have. I will go for the bathing suit, such as long as I don't have to jump off anything, at least 14 minutes at the end of the movie.'

We discovered Quantum of Solace is not the only film ready to be released that Craig is excited about when he discussed his role in the World War II film Defiance, set for release on New Year's Eve.

'It was one of those situations,' he reveals, 'I've always been a fan of Ed Zwick's work. This story came around that I never even heard of. And this story is obviously set in the second World War. It's around the sort of German post-Eastern Europe and sort of the systematic beginning of the Holocaust and there was a fight back and this was a proper fight back.'

'But it's not so much about the fight, but about the survival and how these people actually got through this horrendous period,' Daniel continues, 'You read a story like that and I just went, I've got to do it. It's too good of a story not to leave. However, good or bad the movie is, this story needs to be told. It was just one of those decisions. There's not quite as much action in it. I don't get bruised and battered quite as much as this one.'

One thing is certain, through all the death-defying stunts and international fame and whirlwind that may come with the territory, Daniel Craig says he's here to stay for a good while as James Bond.

'It's great,' he feels, 'I know that sounds like such an awful thing to say, but I don't really have any sort of benchmark. I've done one Bond movie that has been very successful and now I've done another Bond movie that's appearing to be very successful. Before that, when I did movies, box office was never really top of the agenda. Getting people to go see it was top of the agenda, but none of this. So, it's amazing. Obviously, I couldn't be happier because now we may get to make another one.'

'The decision to make the films was a huge one for me,' Craig adds, 'It turned my life upside down. If anything I've learned, that if an opportunity comes along, grab it, because the idea of regretting not doing these, if somebody else would be doing these, I'd be really fucking pissed off and I wouldn't want to be doing them. We'll see what pans out and what happens, but that's kind of down the road. If you love doing something and something comes along, do it. And if it's going to improve it or change it in someway, try and do. I know that it's philosophical, but that's really all there is.'