Film & TV

And where might he choose to get away from it all?

“To a bar,” he deadpans. “I’ll give the keys to the barman and say, ‘I’m not leaving here. Now give me a goddamn drink!”

But a break is all he’s going to get. When Quantum of Solace opens on October 31, Craig will be hard at work again, jetting around the world to do the red carpets from London to Sydney.

“It’s all part of the job,” he says. “It’s about total commitment. When you take on the world’s longest-running movie franchise you have to immerse yourself in the ethos. You have to embrace the whole thing with Bond. There are no half measures.”

The best Bond ever?

Casino Royale took close to $600million at the box office, making it the most successful Bond movie ever. Most people praised Craig as the best Bond since Sean Connery – and some as the best Bond ever.

No one knew better than Craig that the challenge with Quantum of Solace was not simply to do it again but to do it better. “The last one was so successful that we could be a total victim of our own success. You know, where the heck do we go with this one?

“But I think we’ve done all that we can to make this one something special. Personally, I’ve thrown myself into it. There’s no not turning up for this – it has to be everything or nothing. And with that attitude I believe you get something special.

“I think we’ve got a great story, a really great, interesting director and everyone has put themselves out there. And what I’ve seen looks great – it looks fantastic and it looks different.”

Doing his own stunts

As you would expect, there’s plenty of eye-popping action, with car chases, a set piece involving an old Dakota plane, boats and one spectacular sequence in which Craig dodges explosions as he tries to get out of a burning building.

Craig does as much of his own stunt work as he can – and with Quantum of Solace that was considerably more than on Casino Royale. “I think last time it was: ‘Oh, he can do it, so this time let’s have him do more,’” he laughs. “But actually that’s been really rewarding and exciting in a lot of ways.”

When it comes to filming stunts, Craig gets a huge adrenaline rush. One sequence in particular was a massive buzz. “It’s the big scene at the end – the destruction of this building which is blowing up. And I’m in there.  

“We had fireballs exploding not much further away than you are from me [two yards]. It was beautifully designed with these directional explosions going off all around me. I could feel the heat – I’m not kidding. I was covered in fire gel and one would go off – bang!! – and I’d turn round and another goes off – bang!!! – and the ceiling would drop in. It’s really out there – I mean, really out there. It’s great, though.”

The Bond heritage

Craig is well aware of the heritage of the films. He’s watched them all, picking up little pointers that might play into his own performance. “Certainly my influences have always been the taut psychological dramas, including From Russia, With Love and all those from the 1960s and 1970s.
 
“And it was making sure that we brought some of that out in our film. And that we didn’t just re-hash Casino, because that would have been easy. We could have said: ‘Well, that’s the blueprint – let’s just do it again.’ That wasn’t an option for anybody, which is great. I’m not interested in that.”

Craig has also been reading the books again and wants his Bond to be less certain, more conflicted – a man who has to do some terrible things and knows that, deep down, part of him actually enjoys it. He’s a bit of a bastard with a hint of sociopath – just the way Ian Fleming imagined him.

“He’s genuinely grumpy and unhappy when he’s not killing people. It’s scary. There’s always a scene in the book where he is sat at his desk with his feet up, making paper airplanes out of the in tray – pissed off waiting to get involved somewhere.

“Or it’s him splitting up with a girl – or girls leaving him, which is mainly what happens in the books. Girls leave him because he is just a nightmare and I think that’s interesting.  

“Where we go with that, if we do a next one, could be good. We have something else to play with there but this one, Quantum of Solace, has definitely been about tying up the loose ends from the first one.”

Cheers, Mr Craig. Enjoy your hard-earned pint, and raise a glass to a job well done.

Story by Martyn Palmer


Quantum of Solace is released in the UK on October 31


This is an edited version of our cover feature. To enjoy the full story – including Daniel Craig talking about getting injured on set, ruining designer suits and the price of fame – subscribe to Sony Magazine here