Is Daniel Craig Going to Play Bond Again

• Culture
• Movies
• Cinema

This was published 4 months agone

What would it take for Daniel Craig to make some other Bond film? 'A f---ing miracle,' he says

Daniel Craig does non hesitate.

The question that has the star of the James Bond movies leaping into the flames is a follow-up to him maxim, after filming Spectre in 2015, that he would rather slash his wrists than play 007 again. But instead of getting the knives out, Craig went on to shoot No Time To Die.

Daniel Craig: "I'm like 'Just at-home down, I'thousand not James Bond.' " Credit:reg Williams/Danjaq LLC/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

So on a Zoom call a couple of days earlier the world premiere of what Craig has insisted will be his last time playing Bond, it's fair to inquire what it would accept for him to render to the office once more.

"A f---ing miracle," he says, earlier realising what he's done. "Oh god, that's the quote now, isn't it? I've just diddled that now, oasis't I?"

Craig, who is laughing by this time, need non have worried about an inflammatory headline.

Loading

His fifth and final picture show every bit the suavely brooding MI6 super spy – barring that miracle – has been a hitting. After the release was delayed iii times during the pandemic, the 25th Bond movie in the official series quickly raced past $US600 million ($800 million) before its Australian opening adjacent Thursday.

Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (Truthful Detective), it is an epic, emotional and sombre culmination to Craig'south xv years starring in a gritty, muscular series of connected stories.

The romance with psychologist Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) that began in Spectre leads Bond to a new villain, scientist-turned-terrorist Safin (Rami Malek), who is threatening humanity with a biological weapon. There is all the trademark action, spectacle and an Oscars-leap theme song from Billie Eilish.

Deflecting the regular criticism that the series lacks stiff women, No Time To Dice has three – joining Swann are highly skilled agents Paloma (Ana de Armas) and Nomi (Lashana Lynch), with dialogue spiced up by co-author Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag).

When he was cast to take over from Pierce Brosnan in 2005, 37-twelvemonth-former Craig was an achieved histrion known mostly for character roles that were neither athletic nor suave. He trained so hard to put on musculus that a consignment of crisp white shirts for Casino Royale had to be remade.

"I don't want to just plough upwardly, do the job, go home. That's non the fashion I practise things." Daniel Craig with Ralph Fiennes as G in No Time To Die. Credit:Nicola Pigeon/Eon/MGM

At 53, Craig has redefined an iconic character and become famous, wealthy and, on the past ii movies, a producer. While that was non the intention, Craig says he told series producer Barbara Broccoli early on that he wanted a say in the movies.

"I said, 'If yous only give me a say in all aspects of this, and so that I experience like I'm part of it, and so I tin stand upwardly in that location and pretend to be James Bail,' " he says.

" 'It's a big ask simply if you empower me, I'll give it back to yous.'

"She, incredibly generously, did and I've regretted it ever since," Craig says, laughing again.

"I've got a big rima oris, as Barbara will tell you lot. I don't desire to but plow up, exercise the job, become domicile. That'due south not the way I do things."

While there are richer female characters this time, Craig says the #MeToo motion has not changed his view of how women should be represented.

"It'southward no unlike to how I've always wanted to have women represented in the movies, which is to have characters who are as circuitous and as flawed and equally interesting as Bond is," he says.

"That's a selfish angle because the more you lot load the moving-picture show with interesting characters, the more interesting the movie is. We've wanted to put positive role models onto the screen because it'southward important to do so. The world is irresolute, hopefully for the better in many ways, and it's our task as filmmakers to make certain that we stand for on picture."

And so does Craig discover that people he meets confuse him with Bond?

"Kind of but non really," he says. "I live in Brooklyn, occasionally I'll get a 'hello'. But people call me by my proper name. It's very squeamish. Weirdly, blokes in a bar who've had a few drinks tin can ofttimes go [he makes a rumbling sound] and I'yard like, 'Merely calm downwardly, I'g not James Bond.' "

"I really didn't desire him to be this cackling megalomaniac that we've seen before." Rami Malek. Credit:Greg Williams/Danjaq LLC/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Craig says he sliced off the tip of a finger on one shoot and saw a plastic surgeon who cauterised the wound. "I went 'F---!, I'g not actually James Bail, y'all know,' " he says. "So they misfile me occasionally simply I put them straight."

While Broccoli would have idea about casting a new 007 for years, she is not giving anything away even so.

"I'thousand in denial," she says. "I programme to stay in denial well into the future. Every bit far as I'm concerned, Daniel Craig is James Bond ... He'due south going to be sorely, sorely missed."

Craig recognises the serial will need to exist reinvented effectually whoever takes over.

"It's great that the women are not objectified and sexualised equally they used to be." Lea Seydoux with Daniel Craig in No Time to Die. Credit:Nicola Dove/Eon/MGM

"Information technology will adapt," he says. "The movies have always reflected the times that we're in and that's i of the reasons they've lasted and then long. From Cubby [Broccoli] to [daughter] Barbara to [fellow producer] Michael [Wilson], they've kept it every bit event movie theatre, still as relevant every bit information technology ever was ...

"Each generation has had a connection to their Bond, to their time, and then to the ones from the past. Information technology's a testament to the mode they've nurtured and held on to this story."

Having grown up in France, Seydoux says she did not picket whatever Bond movies until Casino Royale but has since defenseless some earlier instalments. She appreciates the female characters have get much more than interesting and that Swann is "a real woman" with her own story.

"It's great that the women are not objectified and sexualised as they used to be," Seydoux says. "They have a existent depth."

The deepening human relationship with Bond puts them both into danger in the movie.

"A human relationship with Bond is not easy because he wears masks and he doesn't trust people," Seydoux says. "Simply I call back that Madeleine is a scrap the same.

"This time she is much more adult and you go to know her a bit more. You lot see her as a child and you understand where she comes from. We know that her father is an assassin but her mother was also a slice of work.

"In Spectre, we saw her equally a stiff and powerful woman only this fourth dimension she shows her vulnerability."

Malek, who joins swain Oscar winners Christoph Waltz and Javier Bardem equally contempo villains, says it was extraordinary entering the Bail universe.

A consignment of crisp white shirts had to be remade afterward Daniel Craig put on musculus while training for Casino Royale. Credit:Eon

"Information technology's everything you want it to be," he says. "You lot want Daniel to be as competent and commanding and the leader that he is and you're immediately hit with that. The sets are breathtaking. They harken back to those Ken Adam's sets of the early films ...

"Barbara Broccoli hand-delivered the script and you lot can feel the history in that, merely in the passing over of a hundred pages of dialogue. You feel the secrecy, the immediacy, the care and the protection from that experience. That's a symbolic handing of a baton to a Bond villain, saying I'k entrusting you with this."

Malek says he had to step back from the thrill of reading the script to work out how to make Safin threatening.

"I really didn't want him to exist this cackling megalomaniac that nosotros've seen before," he says. "And as much as I dearest those types of villains, I thought that when it comes to Daniel's last outing equally 007, it'south an extraordinarily serious event and I wanted an extremely serious villain to be standing in his way and really challenge him."

So from the perspective of an Oscar winner for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, how good is Craig as an actor?

"Daniel has an boggling awareness of what needs to happen in the film," Malek says. "And what needs to happen on the mean solar day to facilitate that overall structure.

"He'due south very good at really tethering ane moment to the next and making sure that nosotros become these essential moments to create suspense and tension throughout the moving-picture show. He knows what needs to happen for this detail Bail to make that legacy stand out above the rest but it's not for a personal reason.

"He has that same altruistic character trait that Bond himself has – that he's out for the greater proficient. You tin can meet that mean solar day in and solar day out, infinitesimal to infinitesimal, with Daniel'due south work ethic and his commitment. He'due south really often the first guy there and the concluding guy to go out."

"The more you load the movie with interesting characters, the more than interesting the moving-picture show is": Daniel Craig in No Fourth dimension to Dice. Credit:Eon

Funnily enough, Malek one time thought that he might be in line to play Bond.

"When I beginning met Barbara Broccoli, it was after a flick called Short Term 12," he says. "Nosotros were in Los Angeles and she asked me to lunch – I couldn't believe it – and said, 'We're going to work together 1 day, Rami.'

"I thought OK, it was never going to be on a Bond moving picture. Simply in that location was a moment when I was heading home subsequently that lunch meeting thinking, 'Could I ever be Bail? Ah, it'll never happen.'

"Simply, of course, who doesn't dream of playing James Bond. I don't know if fans would ever accept that after playing a Bond villain merely y'all never know. With smart audiences, as we have who come to the movie house, we're able to reinvent Bail. So, why couldn't we move on from a villain to actually playing the hero? That would exist another dream come truthful."

Loading

And then, how hard will Craig be to replace given how enduring he has been every bit 007?

"Now that you say that, peradventure I don't desire that office," Malek says. "He is my Bond, that's for sure. And for so many millions of people around the world, he's their Bond equally well.

"He'south brought this emotional connectivity to this character that I've not felt for Bail before. Watching Casino Royale, I said, 'Wow, I'chiliad actually caring about this graphic symbol in a fashion I haven't in previous iterations.'

"And in No Time To Die, I recall your eye will break for that character. That's a testament to the way Daniel has been able to enrich the graphic symbol of a spy who at one point Ian Fleming called a blunt instrument. Well, with Daniel Craig, he is a blunt musical instrument no more than."

Detect out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add together to your must-sees. Become The Watchlist delivered every Thursday .

Email the author at gmaddox@smh.com.au and follow him on Twitter at @gmaddox.

jonesbronds.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/what-would-it-take-for-daniel-craig-to-make-another-bond-movie-a-f-ing-miracle-he-says-20211013-p58zlo.html

Share this post