"More than Just 007"

In the pantheon of English actors making a big impression in Hollywood, Daniel Craig is undoubtedly on the top of the list. Craig has continually impressed audiences with roles in films like Road to Perdition, The Mother, Layer Cake, Enduring Love, and Munich before scoring the ultimate action role as super-spy James Bond in the films Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace.

Now the 43 year-old hopes to further make his mark on the world of the international thriller with a role as Mikael Blomkvist in the film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The film is Hollywood’s adaptation of the first book in what became an enormously successful series known as “the Millennium trilogy” written by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. All three books already had been spawned into successful films in Larsson’s home country in 2009, becoming huge box office hits in Europe. Daniel, however, says he was completely undeterred by living up to expectations from fans of both the books and the original films.

“In this industry, the less you think about what other people are thinking about, the better and more original you can be,” Craig believes, “You can’t go into a project thinking. ‘How will these people like it? How will those people like it?’ You want to be single-minded about it. You can’t please everybody.”

Craig’s character, a magazine owner, uncovering the mystery of a missing and potentially murdered girl. Teaming up with Blomkvist to solve the mystery is the highly unorthodox computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, played by Rooney Mara. One thing that stands out about the film, which involves is the sheer amount of smoking that the characters do. Daniel was direct regarding a reason why there is so much smoking in a film made during an age where smoking has largely been discouraged in Hollywood films.

“People used to,” Craig answers.

Blomkvist often rides with Salander on a motorcycle throughout the course of the story. It was asked if they

"More than Just 007"

actually went very fast on it.

“Yes,” Daniel replies.

Daniel was then asked to confirm a remark made by Mara that he wouldn’t get on the back of it.

“That is not true,” Craig says.

Craig talks about his take on the budding relationship between Mikael and Lisbeth throughout the course of the books.

“I think it has a lot to do with honesty and trust,” he says, “I think that is what was so great in the books. They shouldn’t have a relationship and they shouldn’t even meet in life. They come from different social classes and whatever.”

“I think that Salander has never really gotten to trust anyone or there are few people in her life that are straight with her and he is,” Daniel continues, “He comes in and she has broken the law and has hacked into his life. He walks in and says, ‘Forget that. I think you’re great and I would like to work with you and I’ll walk away.’ I think that this appeals to her.”

Daniel talks about working with director David Fincher, whose previous films include the Oscar-winning The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and The Social Network.

“The more preparation you do and have, the better chances you have on the day,” Craig says of Fincher, “Steve Zaillian wrote great words. So it is there to say. All you are doing in rehearsal is trying to tweak it and make more sense of it and to make sure that everything ties up and you know where you are when you get to it because we didn’t shoot one thing in sequence. We shot the end of the movie first and then whatever you always do. Then that day on the set we do a lot of takes and you try to make it better.”

Teaming up with Blomkvist to solve the mystery is the highly unorthodox computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, played by Rooney Mara. It was

"More than Just 007"

asked of Craig whether it was true that Fincher had to keep trying to feed Mara on set, despite the fact her character is supposed to be thin and emaciated.

“And me as well,” Daniel replies, “But much more successfully.”

Daniel was asked if the intimate scenes between him and Rooney Mara in the relationship that develops between Mikael and Lisbeth over the course of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo were difficult.

“No, of course not,” Craig replies, “They are not difficult. Intimate scenes on a movie set are just dry bizarre things. There are people standing around and I don’t make those kinds of movies. Not for a long time anyway.”

David Fincher is a director well-known for demanding a lot of takes out of his performers. It was asked of Craig if he felt his performances got progressively better with every take.

“No,” Daniel replies, “Sometimes you get worse and worse and then it kind of changes. Someone throws a lot of money at you to get to do something like this. You are there to do it right. Things get frustrating in a work day and there are lots of other things to get frustrated about, but then there are a lot of triumphs at the end of the day. You can’t get down about it.”

One scene in the film involves Daniel’s character in a strange contraption in a basement. It was commented that he looked uncomfortable being in it.

“I took it home,” Craig replies, with a laugh.

Craig, then, offered his own humorous take on the situation.

“Just another day working with David Fincher,” Daniel says, laughing.

Daniel also shared about what it was like to do the film’s action scenes and stunt work in general.

“The most important thing about this character for me was to make him as real and as believable as possible.,” Craig says, “Obviously, there is another person that I play that would deal with it in a

"More than Just 007"

different way. It wasn’t like I was ever thinking about that. I wanted to put the reality into this. He gets shot and runs away screaming like anybody else would. That was really the key and it was dead easy.”

“Just to be sort of by the by, but that is what I love about this character and the relationship he has with Salander,” he adds, “He doesn’t have to prove that he is a man. He is a guy and he doesn’t have to go around beating his chest and he is very happy to fall into this relationship where she is literally wearing the trousers.

Craig was asked what it was like playing a reporter.

“My character is not as computer literate as Salander,” he says, “He has to sort of go out and bang on people’s doors and sort of it do it in the ways that he knows. It gets him out of the house, which is good.”

“It was very much part of the rehearsal process and the conversations we had about, ‘Okay. At this point we are supposed to be looking at this,’” Daniel adds, “David did, but we all got involved with mapping it out so that we could sort of rim the changes each time. It is a testament to his skill as a director that it all remains interesting.”

Daniel says that unlike Salander who a uniquely butch, punk look in the film, Rooney Mara dressed more feminine when the cameras weren’t rolling.

“She would put on a pink dress at the end of the day and get really girly,” Craig says with a laugh.

Craig was asked if he had seen the film.

“I saw it,” Daniel replies, “I got in contact with David and I said, in one of the rare occasions in my career, ‘That was the movie that we set out to make.’ That is kind of the best thing that

"More than Just 007"

I can say about it. I was very, very pleased.”

Daniel was asked if he would return as Blomkvist to do the Hollywood film adaptation’s for the original novel’s sequels The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest, if the opportunity was to arise.

“I would love to stay on board,” Craig answers.