Being James Bond: The Daniel Craig Story (2021) Movie Script
Ah, it's one of the most
prestigious roles in acting...
The movie world's
most famous secret agent...
After months of speculation,
the coveted job of being the next 007...
...finally been unmasked.
And his name is Craig, Daniel Craig.
Craig, Daniel Craig.
Hundreds of actors were considered
before he was chosen to play 007.
He beat off stiff competition
from a host of stars
including Clive Owen,
Hugh Jackman and Colin Farrell.
The 37-year-old actor
is the first blond Bond.
Blond Bond.
Are we ready for the first blond Bond?
He is extraordinarily different
from what we've had before.
He's got a few more lines
around the face.
He does look a little bit moodier,
and frankly, in the press conference,
he wasn't really that forthcoming.
...the somewhat lackluster
press conference.
Reporters were distinctly underwhelmed
by 007's official unveiling today.
Knives out already
for the new James Bond.
Fierce criticism.
"James Bland"
is how the Mirror described...
He hasn't even started the role, has he?
But they're being
a bit harsh in the papers.
So we'd quite like to have your texts
and emails and phone calls
on this as well.
The Mirror says this morning
that the new Bond, Daniel Craig,
lacks the charm
and the charisma needed by 007.
I must admit, he doesn't
exactly look the part.
But he might grow into the job.
Good evening.
I always felt about Daniel,
'cause I had seen a lot of things,
from Our Friends in the North,
and then, obviously,
Enduring Love and The Mother,
and I always felt like
whenever he was on the screen,
you couldn't watch anyone else.
You'd be interested in the scene stuff,
but he just...
he's lit from within.
I remember the thing that really set me,
and I went, "It has to be him,"
was years before anything.
It was in Elizabeth,
him walking down the corridor.
And it was just like,
that is the most charismatic person
I have ever seen on the screen.
So it was clear that he's a movie star,
and a great actor to boot.
I think to put it in perspective,
at this time in Daniel's career,
he wasn't thought of as a leading man.
It was not what people thought of.
They thought he was
a great supporting actor.
And Barbara and I
could see that
he was actually a leading man.
I had a career.
I mean, as far as I was concerned,
I had a really successful career,
more successful than
I ever thought
I would be as an actor.
But I didn't have a cool persona.
You know, Pierce had done
Remington Steele.
Um, Roger had done The Saint.
They'd done these parts
where people would go,
"Oh, that's James."
I mean, you know,
I'd done weird arty movies.
You know, it was a harder sell.
And it was like,
"I don't do many suave
and sophisticated roles.
I haven't done any."
And I didn't really want to do it
because I thought
I wouldn't know
what to do with it.
- Ready for rehearsal.
Quiet.
-Action.
Michael and I really wanted him.
We only wanted him.
The only problem was that
he didn't want to do it.
Small detail.
And you came into the office
and I remember he walked in,
and I said to Michael afterwards,
"He wants to do it."
It was the funniest thing.
It was something about
the way he had his...
He was wearing French cuffs
and they weren't done up,
and I...
just that thing, somehow,
I don't know why it was,
I said, "He wants to do it."
Michael's going,
"You think so?"
I said "Yes, he does. He does."
And we were just determined to have him.
Mm-hmm.
Action.
I'm the money.
Every penny of it.
The Treasury has agreed
to stake you in the game.
"Vesper."
I do hope you gave
your parents hell for that.
It was like there wasn't anyone else.
That kept freaking the studio out
'cause we kept saying
there is no one else.
We don't want anyone else.
And they kept trying
to get us to meet people.
I suppose all of these
are a little like hurdles
is what I was saying to myself.
"It's all right.
What's gonna happen is,"
I'm gonna get the script,
I'm gonna read it,
I'm gonna go,
'No, thanks very much,
it's really not...'"
'cause it's like... I mean,
ultimately, that's all
the actor can do really is,
be kind of, like, you know,
you read the script and you go,
"I don't like the script.
Sorry."
Little did I know.
That happens every time.
Yeah, yeah.
But it was Casino Royale.
The story was solid,
the script was really solid.
And it was just like,
I didn't imagine the scope of it.
I didn't imagine, like,
the crane sequence,
or all of those sequences.
I had no idea about any of that.
But I knew this story stuck together.
You know, it just... it flew.
I remember calling you
-to tell you you got the job.
-Yeah.
I went, "Yes?"
She just went,
"Over to you, kiddo."
So I went
and I just grabbed
a bottle of vodka
and some vermouth,
and bought a cocktail shaker,
and went back to my apartment
and started mixing myself vodka martinis.
You know, that's not half bad.
That was the first bit of training.
That was my first bit of exercise.
I think I had a hangover
for, like, three days.
And then, I sent Simon Waterston...
Yeah, he was my trainer, yeah.
And I literally met him
with a rollie
and a bacon sandwich.
That's his first memory of me.
I was literally smoking a cigarette
and eating a bacon sandwich.
And I just said to him,
I said, "I want to change."
And he went, "Okay."
So we did, and then it was
seven days a week from then on.
The way you went
into physical training for it,
I've never seen any actor
do anything like that,
completely change your physique.
You said, "I have to look like
I could do the role."
I mean, it's kind of amazing.
And he trained like an Olympic athlete.
It was just fantastic.
Now, after months of speculation,
the new James Bond
has finally been unmasked,
and his name is Craig, Daniel Craig.
Today,
it was announced that
Brit actor, Daniel Craig,
had beaten hundreds of competitors
to grab the role.
But after four decades
of tall, dark and handsome,
are we really ready
for the first blond Bond?
They're saying they wanted him...
Well, you always get press on Bond.
You get so much attention.
But the lead up was just
absolutely a roller coaster.
You have to say, it does appear
to be casting against type.
To put it kindly, he's a bit
rough around the edges.
I remember
when we did the announcement
with you,
going down the Thames,
and already it started,
because we had the Marines,
and they said he had
to wear a life jacket.
We said, "Okay,
well, he has to."
And then, you know, it started then.
"Oh, Bond, you know,
wearing a life jacket,
how ridiculous."
And then I was grumpy
in the press conference.
No!
You're never grumpy!
Like someone asked a question.
I was like,
"That's a stupid question."
The way I dealt with it,
it was just to be
kind of grisly.
No, I will not go into it.
-Yes?
-Sorry.
But when
the onslaught of press
against him happened
on Casino Royale, it was brutal.
I mean, it was way beyond any...
And it was because of what?
You know, "blond Bond?"
-Like, blond...
-That was very hurtful.
You know, wasn't Roger Moore blond?
I mean, it was so irrational.
They hadn't seen him in the role.
It's just...
It was very, very distressing,
when he was...
I remember we were
in the Bahamas
and he was on that crane sequence,
and he was killing himself
on that crane sequence,
and we would all come back
and then it'd be all over the news,
all over the Internet.
It's just so irresponsible
that people were manufacturing this stuff
based on what?
Based on a couple of teenagers
who had started an Internet thing
called "Craig Not Bond."
But all these news agencies
were treating it
as if it was like real news.
You know, it's an opinion
of a couple of kids
who hadn't seen a foot of film
that the man had shot.
Someone said,
"You might want to go online.
There might be
a bit of an issue."
I was, like, "What?"
I did. I went online
and stayed up all night
and read everything,
'cause that's what happens
if you do that.
And it was tough.
It was really, really tough.
It was hate-filled.
And I woke up the following morning,
"and I went, "Fuck it.
I know the film's
gonna be good."
Action!
It was just horrible.
The whole crew, we were all
just brimming with anger about it,
and trying to act very casual around him.
But we were angry for him
'cause it was so unfair.
Everybody else was in a state about it.
Everybody else who was in this
was going, "God. Oh, my God,
I'm so sorry."
It must be awful," and like that.
I was like, "It's fine.
It's all good.
Come on, let's crack on
with it."
'Cause I knew we were doing
something really special.
It's a tribute to Daniel
that he could look past it,
but a lot of people can't.
And people who work on the film,
it affects the morale.
Also, I remember going back
to the horrendous time in the Bahamas.
We were besieged with paparazzi.
I mean, one guy was like...
buried himself in the sand
sort of the night before
we were gonna be on the beach.
I mean, it was insane.
It was like, you know, crazy.
And I remember Daniel
coming out of the water
and the whole crew going,
"Oh, my God."
And that was probably the only time
when a pap shot...
Because it was a pap shot that broke...
But then, of course,
changed the whole idea of,
you know, Daniel and what
his Bond was gonna be like.
"Suddenly everybody went, "Oh, my God!
This is the guy?
The blond guy?"
"Who cares?"
Look at those tits!
The whole thing changed.
And then it was a whole different thing,
and he was suddenly
the coolest guy on Earth.
It was exciting.
You've redeemed this moment.
Bloody hell!
These two gave me a voice.
I mean, I asked for it.
I spoke to both of you.
I remember having
this conversation.
I said, "If you're going to
make me do this..."
I didn't say that.
I think you did.
But it was being allowed to discuss it.
You know, Martin and I,
we argued a lot on it.
He didn't get...
He never got upset with me.
You know, we used to have
these kind of
amazing pitch battles on set.
They were never angry.
They were just like,
"I don't agree with you!"
"I don't agree with you!"
But somehow, it elevated it.
It was allowing me to see...
If I saw something that
I didn't think was right,
I would go and discuss it.
And if I was wrong, I'd go,
"Okay, I'm wrong,
I'm wrong, I'm wrong."
But if I thought it was right,
I felt like I had the power
to be able to go,
"I know I'm right about this."
And there's a couple
of scenes in the movie
which I'm really glad I spoke up about,
-and they work.
-Action.
But Martin let me do that.
The shower scene which is, I think,
one of the most
beautiful scenes ever
in a movie,
you know, after that fight
in the hallway,
and in the script, it was written that...
that, uh, Eva Green was in her underwear,
and you were in, you know...
And Daniel said,
"No, they don't get undressed.
They're in their clothes."
And I just remember that day.
Oh, my God.
It's like there's blood on my hands.
It's not coming off.
Here, let's see.
It was there in the script, but it was...
It was sort of hinted at in the script,
and I just was all about,
if we're gonna go with the violence,
we're gonna go with the reality of it.
You know, it's still a James Bond movie,
but the point of it is,
I wanted to see what happens,
the effect it has on people.
"And I was like, "She's in shock,
so she's sitting in the shower
in her clothes."
It made complete sense to me.
-You cold?
-Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Come here.
I remember talking
to the composer and saying,
-"That's the moment they fall in love.
-" -Mm.
And the music
in that scene
is just so beautiful.
-David Arnold.
-Mm.
The thing that
Daniel brought to the character
and the series,
was Bond's inner life
and the emotional life
and the complexity of the emotional life,
which was in the books,
but never really translated
onto the screen
until he came on.
And we were ready to make a shift
because we were getting
too fantastical in our series.
And Daniel's an actor
who can bring it down
to where it belongs,
make it more real,
make it more emotionally connected
and make it more dramatic.
And we wanted to make that change.
So we needed him to do it
because we couldn't do it
with anybody else.
Barbara and Michael
wanted to do something,
change it for a reason.
They wanted to turn it on its head.
"And I was like, "I'm up for that.
If that is what you want to do,
I'm up for that."
-Vodka martini.
-Shaken or stirred?
Do I look like I give a damn?
A lot of the kind of,
the cliches, as it were,
that have become cliches over the years
'cause they've become Bond tropes,
"I was like, "We can't really do that.
We have to try
and reinvent it."
But saying that,
these were really,
really difficult to write for.
Putting words in James Bond's mouth...
Because all that
anybody remembers
are the one-liners.
You know, for me,
the funniest lines
are out of reality.
The greatest Bond lines
are stress release.
They're like a release of,
you know, of tension,
so that you don't...
"Oh, God!"
You know, 'cause he's
in a terrible situation.
You have to create that.
You have to create the tension
and then have the one-liner.
You can't just...
The one-liner's not the scene.
I've got a little itch
down there.
Would you mind?
No.
No! No.
No, no.
To the right. To the right!
To the right!
You are a funny, man. Mr. Bond.
Well, it was the same
with "Bond, James Bond."
Exactly.
I mean, I know. I mean,
Pierce talks about it.
But it's like, you know,
saying that fucking line...
I mean, if I have to say it,
I'll say it once to myself.
And then you're on set
and you think, "Oh, I'm fine,
I'm fine, I'm fine."
And then you say it,
and it's like this...
The weight of it is just...
And I think I try to be
quite cool about these things,
but it's impossible.
I mean, I don't know
how many takes we did
at the end of Casino Royale.
Literally, there are takes with,
"The name's Bond, James Bond."
It's like...
It's like I'm a 13-year-old
whose voice is breaking.
The name's Bond.
James Bond.
The film was good,
but because people's expectations were,
"Let's go and see
this train wreck."
I mean, I think a lot of people
did think, you know,
"We're going to see it for
the shits and giggles factor,"
or the fact that this...
"Let's go and see
this one-shot wonder."
I mean, all of that going on.
And it's like...
The response was...
I mean, you know, I remember
being at the premiere,
which was Leicester Square?
Mm-hmm.
That was just like...
I mean, I was like,
"What is going on?"
And the credits came up,
I mean, the pre-title sequence.
And it's not the biggest
pre-title sequence
'cause it's just a fight
in the bathroom, isn't it?
That's all it is.
It's black and white
and it's not
that particularly long.
It's not particularly
ambitious like that.
And it came to the ending
and the music came in,
and everybody, I mean,
everybody started cheering.
And it was just like, you know,
I'm kinda feeling up about it now.
Yeah, I mean, it was just...
It just went... Skyrocketed.
The movie went crazy.
And the reviews were crazy, right?
The reviews were great.
And the numbers were great.
Although, I think all that bad publicity,
we could've done better without it.
I think we could have done a lot better.
But we were good.
Solid success.
Please welcome Mr. Daniel Craig,
ladies and gentlemen.
Daniel Craig
proved all this doubters wrong
with his debut in Casino Royale.
The most successful yet.
The highest grossing
Bond movie in history...
Box office hit, Casino Royale,
becomes the first ever in the series
to be shown in China's cinemas.
The super spy has finally
conquered the Communists.
He really has completely
re-energized this franchise.
Congratulations.
You know, I think
a celebration's in order.
On Quantum, however,
uh, we had a writer's strike.
We had a script,
it wasn't completed,
but it was nearly completed,
and we had a writer's strike.
I mean, the movie kind of works.
It's not Casino Royale,
and that was always gonna be...
It was, like, literally,
"troubling second album"
syndrome.
In a way, we could not top Casino.
It's easy to say that.
Of course we wanted
to top Casino but, you know...
We were up
against the writer's strike
on one end...
Which everybody knew was coming.
We knew it was coming,
and we hadn't quite gotten
the script right.
We didn't have a director yet.
And on the other end was the...
There was supposed to be
an actors' strike,
the SAG strike.
"So we were like, "If we don't go now,
it's gonna be
never-never land."
So, we basically
started shooting
without a script,
which is never a good idea.
But the script was turned in,
and I remember the writer
who turned the script in
and then picked up his check,
and then picked up his placard
and stood outside the studio striking.
Anyway, so, we were kind of screwed,
and we had to all kind of muddle in
and try and make the story work,
and it wasn't really working that great.
But, you know, I look back at the movie
and, you know, it's still a good movie.
There's some really
special moments in that film.
-Yeah.
-Very special.
I don't know if that movie
adheres together
as well as it should,
but that was just because
the story, it wasn't solid.
We just didn't get
Bond's journey right in it,
which is the key.
It wasn't totally focused on his journey,
and I think, sometimes we get...
we can get too wound up in plot
rather than keep to the story,
which is an issue
for these kind of films.
Three, two, one, action!
What had happened, weirdly,
and it's not nobody's fault,
I mean, it's my fault, mainly is that...
You know, the stunt guys were like,
"Oh, God, you can do this."
So I'd get more and more and more to do.
I was loving it, it was great,
I was jumping
all over the place.
So I threw myself into the stunts
more than I threw myself...
'Cause the script was a bit kind of like,
"I don't know what to do
about the script. I can't...
I'm not a writer,
I can't help."
And even though Marc and I
would sit and we'd try
and bash things out,
I couldn't really help.
So I threw myself into the stunts,
and I basically volunteered
for every single stunt
in the movie.
And that was... with hindsight,
that was a bad mistake,
'cause I got badly hurt.
But on Quantum, I think
I was sort of overwhelmed.
My world had turned upside down.
I mean, upside down.
My personal life was affected
by being that famous all of a sudden.
I can honestly say I was
sort of in a bit of
cloud cuckoo land.
When you think about it, I mean,
Daniel went from
not being a household name
to being on the tea towels,
literally on the tea towels.
That's a huge transformation for someone.
And I mean, I remember,
you were sort of under siege
at a point, weren't you?
I mean, I think I was
physically under siege,
but also, I was mentally under siege.
I mean, when there are people
in trees outside your house,
you're kind of, you know, they say,
"What have you got
to be paranoid about?"
I mean, I didn't go out.
I mean, I literally kind of
would lock myself in
and close the curtains
'cause I didn't know how to handle it.
And I don't still.
I mean,
there were times
I was worried for him
because he wasn't enjoying life.
You know, it felt like
it was really a big sacrifice.
And then we did a play together
in New York.
-Yeah.
-I think that...
And Hugh Jackman taught me a few things.
Yeah. I mean,
that was interesting because...
Well, one of things
that you told me
was that I'm not Hugh.
- Yeah.
- - Because Hugh is extraordinary.
I mean, his wife calls him Senator Jack.
-So, it's like...
-So, he goes out, you know,
like, he waves to the crowd
and talks to everybody,
kisses every baby.
I mean,
he's, like, there for hours
every night after the show,
and I kind of, it isn't...
I joined in.
I kind of was like, "Okay."
I mean, you know,
'cause they were there
to see us both.
And they were both...
And they were excited
to see us both. And it was...
So I think that broke a big...
-The enjoyment...
-It broke a boil.
Yeah, it broke a boil, exactly.
It kind of, it just made it that,
"You know what,
it ain't that bad."
It became fun, it became fun.
Where the hell have you been?
You didn't get the postcard?
You should try it sometime,
get away from it all.
It really lends perspective.
When we got to Skyfall,
it was about building the family again.
-The MI6 family.
-Yes.
Because we knew that
Judy would be departing.
Getting Ralph involved.
-Getting Ralph involved.
-Yeah. And Ben.
And Ben and Naomie Harris.
So we felt we were betting
into something again,
and giving Bond his family,
his foundation back.
But it was like we have to have a new Q
and you know,
the casting of Ben was
just like this genius thing.
It just pleased everybody.
Always makes me feel a little melancholy.
A grand old warship
being ignominiously hauled away
for scrap.
Inevitability of time, don't you think?
What do you see?
A bloody big ship.
Excuse me.
I'm your new Quartermaster.
You must be joking.
Why? Because I'm not wearing
a lab coat?
Because you still have spots.
I got very excited
when I saw my friend, Daniel,
play James Bond
in Casino Royale.
And I thought it opened up all sorts of
wonderful possibilities
for the character.
And I wanted a huge challenge
and for me,
this was an enormous challenge.
Daniel had suggested Sam,
which was a really great idea.
And, you know,
Sam was coming back to England,
and he'd never done anything
on that sort of scale before.
And it was a great combination.
Yeah, you know,
Sam came in
and he loves actors,
and he loves directing actors.
And we had a great story,
and all the actors came up
and turned up.
They created something.
They reinvented it.
They did it in a way that's
incredibly memorable, I think.
Are you sure this is about M?
It's about her,
and you and me.
You see, we are the last two rats.
We can either eat each other...
Hmm?
Or eat everyone else.
How you're trying to remember
your training now.
What's the regulation to cover this?
Well, first time for everything,
-yes?
-Hmm.
What makes you think
this is my first time?
Oh, Mr. Bond...
That scene with you and Javier,
when the sort of
sexual innuendo
between the two of you
and you say,
"What makes you think
this is my first time?"
I mean, I remember
we were told
to cut that line by the studio,
and we said, "No, no, no."
We resisted. We resisted.
And I remember the night of the premier
that line, just the whole place
rocked it then, with that line.
I remember looking at
the studio executive
who was in the next thing,
going, "See, told you."
Now we have the poster.
-Finally.
-Yeah.
Skyfall is an example again,
of a complex story
and a very simple plot.
And those emotional stories really work,
and both, Casino Royale and Skyfall
demonstrate that.
We had an ending,
you know,
we had an ending for Skyfall.
We'd figured the ending out
very early on.
It was emotionally,
very emotionally affecting.
I suppose it's
too late to make a run for it.
Well, I am game if you are.
Let's just get one thing right.
The day we filmed her death was...
was very emotional,
I mean, it's...
It was difficult.
I mean,
we joked most of the day,
but it was actually...
It was very tough to do
because she's been
part of Bond for a while.
And it's like she has something
about her,
and it comes across in her acting,
and it comes across
in everything she does.
It was an extremely
emotional day for all of us.
Um, I think for Judy, who was
really holding it together.
Um,
but, you know, for me also because...
during the, sort of,
17 years that we've been
working together,
you know, we've all been through a lot.
And, um, she's reinvented this character.
And it was pretty devastating.
We were all...
We were all a mess.
Well, I was a mess, particularly.
I mean, on a purely personal level
the fact that I got to act
with Judy Dench,
it was a lifelong ambition.
The fact that I got to act
with Judi Dench, being my M,
is just beyond the realms.
Skyfall, for me, was a culmination of...
It was every...
It kind of ticked all my boxes.
Cut. Cut, thank you.
There were
so many things about Skyfall
that were terrific.
The story, and then,
bringing the family together,
and the really emotional ending
and all that.
Then we also had Adele,
and we also had the Olympics.
And that was just incredible.
The stars
of the new James Bond movie,
Skyfall,
are with us.
Yes, they are.
Daniel Craig is here.
The last time we saw you
as Bond with Her Majesty,
-the Olympics...
-Mm-hmm.
-...how long was that
-in the planning?
-Quite a long time.
Danny Boyle came to visit me on set.
He sat me down,
he told me what he wanted to do
and I walked out and said,
"Enough of that."
I really thought
he was just pulling my leg.
So, um, anyway, the whole kind of thing,
um, you know, came about.
The next thing I know I'm at the Palace.
'Cause you must've thought,
"Oh, I'll agree to it
but it'll never happen."
-You know, you can... - Well, I didn't...
-I mean, I thought
they hadn't sort of had
the okay from the Palace,
but apparently,
they got that first
and then asked me.
So I didn't have much choice.
Oh, yeah.
Imagine if you'd turned it down.
... all the way
around the stadium,
a James Bond epic...
starring...
Daniel Craig,
and Her Majesty, The Queen.
The British Artist of the Year Award
was created in 2006,
and the first recipient
was another incredibly
talented actor, Rachel Weisz,
Daniel's wife.
Britannia Award, the best of British...
Sorry, I'll get it together on the day.
-Best British...
...For British Artist of the Year.
British Artist.
Daniel, artist.
And now, six years later,
with Rachel's patient tutelage...
...and coaching,
he is in the position
to be able to accept...
...that 11 people
got offered the role before him.
But don't... Uh,
don't put any of this.
Clooney, I think was first, Clooney.
I got offered, um...
I think even, yeah, Jude Law
got offered it.
Will Ferrell got offered it.
Put your hands together
for the British Artist of The Year,
Mr. Daniel Craig.
Thank you, Bafta for this.
It's incredibly humbling
to receive this honor
with all these amazingly talented people.
Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli,
together with Cubby Broccoli,
they made a franchise last 50 years.
And, uh, they allowed me
to be part of it,
so thank you.
Thank you.
We had to convince Sam to do it.
I mean, you know,
Sam was very much
of two minds about it.
He felt he'd done it
and he'd done it
so successfully
to drag him back in,
but he got into it.
He approached this whole series
with tremendous enthusiasm, I would say.
"You know, "Let's get the car,
and let's do
the biggest explosion."
He just really embraced all the tropes,
which was... it was time
for that to happen.
And, uh, and it was fun.
Yeah, I always wanted to have the gadgets
and things back in the movie.
It was just
bringing them back in
in an original way.
And I think Sam and I
had this conversation
before Spectre.
It was how do we make it
happen, so it feels fresh.
But I think we needed to find a big hook
to the story.
And then, obviously, what came up was
the idea of bringing Blofeld back.
Welcome, James.
It's been a long time.
But finally, here we are.
What took you so long?
Cuckoo.
I had a lot of fun on that movie,
but part of the problem
was that maybe I broke my leg.
And we had a choice,
we could shut down for nine months,
and I could go and get an operation,
or I could, I could
crack on with the movie.
And, I didn't want to
shut down for nine months.
I-I thought I've got to finish the movie,
so I wore basically a bionic leg
for the rest of the...
rest of the film,
which was not the greatest way
to do a Bond movie.
And you didn't stop doing all the action?
No.
You know, unfortunately,
it was massively distracting for me.
So I probably was talking through my ass
when I said it was
the best experience of my life
because I was trying
to juggle an awful lot
of things.
I had to psychologically juggle
my physical state.
Hang on.
Trouble is,
with the energy that I had,
the leg would give way,
which is kinda of great
when you watch me walking
at the beginning of the movie,
and I climb out of a window,
walk down a ledge
and jump down another ledge,
and jump down another ledge.
I'm literally going,
"Don't give way,
don't give way,
don't give way."
I mean, I'm tired, got a wire on,
but I mean, it's very traumatic.
'Cause I'm trying to be cool,
but my leg is... it's shot.
Here we go.
Ready, everyone?
Let's all fall back.
And, action!
He was in excruciating pain
on that whole sequence.
The opening sequence was redesigned
for him to be more stealth-like,
because he could barely walk.
I remember, I was just
looking at him and thinking,
"I don't know how
he's actually managing this."
I mean, we had 1,500 extras.
You know, it was a massive,
massive sequence.
We had shut down the square for four days
and he was like,
"I'm going to do it," you know?
But we changed the idea
and I just said, "Look,
we keep it mysterious."
So basically, I'm doing
a lot of entrances and exits,
and I think that kind of worked.
In a way, it was fortuitous,
because that scene is exceptional.
And if we'd shut down,
God knows, I don't know,
-I don't...
- We never
-could have achieved that.
Well, you know what,
they said nine-month recovery.
I mean, it may be
for a 22-year-old athlete,
but it's not for a man
of advancing years.
I don't wat to
kind of go on about
how hard Spectre was,
but it was, it was tough,
and I needed a break.
I needed to kind of switch off.
I needed to get away.
And I genuinely felt,
psychologically,
at the end of that film,
"Maybe I'm just too old."
And the problem is
the way we started
these films...
I've started my tenure at this,
was throwing myself at it
like a bull in a China shop.
So, to sort of not do that,
seemed to be like,
"What's the point?"
I mean, it just felt,
like, completely wrong.
I mean, I, genuinely,
I'd convinced myself
that was it.
Daniel Craig is definitely
not doing another Bond movie.
In a super candid interview with Time Out
while doing press for Spectre,
Daniel Craig is asked
if he'd want to do another Bond movie.
"His answer, "Now
I'd rather break this glass
and slash my wrists."
It was two days
after I finished shooting
the last movie.
-Sure.
-I went straight into an interview
-and someone said,
"Would you do another one?"
-Oh, okay.
And I went, "No!"
I... And instead of
saying something, you know,
um, with style and grace.
I gave a really stupid answer.
Someone gave me
a good analogy, which is that,
if you were asked 200 meters
from the end of a marathon,
whether you'd run
another marathon,
you'd be...
you know, you'd be fairly
short and sweet
about the answer,
which is what I was.
I've read that it will be your last.
-Will this be your last?
-I don't know.
-The burning question, will it be your last one?
-Who knows.
Are you gonna stay or are you gonna go...
I don't know. I just don't know.
The honest answer is, I don't know.
I don't know.
Daniel Craig, will you return
as James Bond?
Yes.
You know, Barbara drives a hard bargain.
Thanks so much. Daniel Craig...
So, I don't think
I was ever really gonna
get away with leaving
after Spectre.
That was supposed to be his last movie,
although I told him it wasn't gonna be.
It was supposed to be my last movie
but Barbara, she said, "No."
"I said, "There is unfinished business.
We haven't told the rest of the story.
"There is still story
to be told here."
So we started this one
with the idea that,
"Wow, we got to go for broke."
The production
on the latest film, Bond 25,
was reportedly just shut down.
It's being reported that
Craig injured himself in Jamaica
on the set of Bond 25.
We had the injury, but we also had...
You know, we started
with one director
and we got another,
and then we had script issues
that went on and on and on.
And it's also emotionally tough
being Daniel's last one.
It's tough on Barbara, it's tough on me,
it's tough on Daniel, especially.
And you know, you don't appreciate that.
You don't appreciate how
emotionally difficult it is
to do these things.
There always is a struggle.
Come on, it's always what it is.
But this has been...
It's been harder the most,
but, because we were
up against it so much.
People were just like,
"We're gonna get it done.
This is the last one."
And it felt like
everybody just bought into it.
I'm just so thrilled
at how this film has turned out.
There's something about this film that...
The culmination of the five films
and this film in particular,
it makes me feel, as if
not only has he made his mark
on the Bond franchise,
but he has now made his mark
in cinematic history.
I mean, the night he completed the role
and we wrapped the film,
was like a real moment.
Mm-hmm. And the last shot
was him running down an alley,
disappearing out of shot.
It was just unbelievable.
And, cut.
-Cut the light.
...All right, that's it, guys.
It was a historic moment.
Everyone came.
We were night shooting,
and everyone came down
to kind of witness the moment.
Because we knew how significant it was.
It was deeply emotional.
I mean, everyone was sobbing.
-Literally sobbing.
-People wouldn't leave.
You know,
usually on night shifts,
everybody leaves, no?
They just stood around
and, just embraced each other.
You know, I've been
doing this for a while
and there's some of the people
I've actually worked with here,
I think, most of my career,
which is getting on
for about 30 years.
So that's quite a long time.
And a lot of people here
worked on five pictures with me,
and I know there's
a lot of things said about
what I think about these films,
or all of those whatever.
But I've loved every single second
of these movies, and especially this one,
because I've got up every morning,
and I've had the chance
to work with you guys.
And that has been
one of the greatest honors
of my life.
So...
I look at what I've done,
and go,
"That's part of Goldfinger."
And I'm like, "Wow."
I mean, I'm connected to Goldfinger,
I'm connected to Dr. No.
I'm connected to Live and Let Die.
I mean, my tenure is what it is,
but it's only part of something bigger.
That's just...
That's what it is,
when you look back and go...
I mean, genuinely, I feel like that.
But I look at the films
and I'm incredibly proud
of every single one of them.
-I know we've done our best.
-Yeah, for sure.
I mean, really done our best.
Yeah, I mean,
he's sitting here,
so it's so awkward to say it,
but Daniel has just taken this...
the character, or the series,
the whole thing
to a place that is so extraordinary
and so emotionally satisfying,
that I cannot imagine Bond after Daniel.
Let's be honest,
leaving this role is not easy.
It's a really difficult thing to do.
And, you know,
I can be as brazen and blase
about it as I like,
it's still tough to do.
It's still tough to walk away from.
And it's not about
money and fame
because I've got it.
I mean, I'm incredibly lucky
and incredibly fortunate
to have been able to do this.
It's given me more things
in my life
than I could ever wish for.
And it's not about any of those things.
It's about a psychological connection
to something that has taken up
15 years of my life.
And to walk away from
something like that,
is very, very tricky.
But I think it's okay now.
I do.
And it's because
we did this movie, really.
I mean, I just think that
it's all right now.
prestigious roles in acting...
The movie world's
most famous secret agent...
After months of speculation,
the coveted job of being the next 007...
...finally been unmasked.
And his name is Craig, Daniel Craig.
Craig, Daniel Craig.
Hundreds of actors were considered
before he was chosen to play 007.
He beat off stiff competition
from a host of stars
including Clive Owen,
Hugh Jackman and Colin Farrell.
The 37-year-old actor
is the first blond Bond.
Blond Bond.
Are we ready for the first blond Bond?
He is extraordinarily different
from what we've had before.
He's got a few more lines
around the face.
He does look a little bit moodier,
and frankly, in the press conference,
he wasn't really that forthcoming.
...the somewhat lackluster
press conference.
Reporters were distinctly underwhelmed
by 007's official unveiling today.
Knives out already
for the new James Bond.
Fierce criticism.
"James Bland"
is how the Mirror described...
He hasn't even started the role, has he?
But they're being
a bit harsh in the papers.
So we'd quite like to have your texts
and emails and phone calls
on this as well.
The Mirror says this morning
that the new Bond, Daniel Craig,
lacks the charm
and the charisma needed by 007.
I must admit, he doesn't
exactly look the part.
But he might grow into the job.
Good evening.
I always felt about Daniel,
'cause I had seen a lot of things,
from Our Friends in the North,
and then, obviously,
Enduring Love and The Mother,
and I always felt like
whenever he was on the screen,
you couldn't watch anyone else.
You'd be interested in the scene stuff,
but he just...
he's lit from within.
I remember the thing that really set me,
and I went, "It has to be him,"
was years before anything.
It was in Elizabeth,
him walking down the corridor.
And it was just like,
that is the most charismatic person
I have ever seen on the screen.
So it was clear that he's a movie star,
and a great actor to boot.
I think to put it in perspective,
at this time in Daniel's career,
he wasn't thought of as a leading man.
It was not what people thought of.
They thought he was
a great supporting actor.
And Barbara and I
could see that
he was actually a leading man.
I had a career.
I mean, as far as I was concerned,
I had a really successful career,
more successful than
I ever thought
I would be as an actor.
But I didn't have a cool persona.
You know, Pierce had done
Remington Steele.
Um, Roger had done The Saint.
They'd done these parts
where people would go,
"Oh, that's James."
I mean, you know,
I'd done weird arty movies.
You know, it was a harder sell.
And it was like,
"I don't do many suave
and sophisticated roles.
I haven't done any."
And I didn't really want to do it
because I thought
I wouldn't know
what to do with it.
- Ready for rehearsal.
Quiet.
-Action.
Michael and I really wanted him.
We only wanted him.
The only problem was that
he didn't want to do it.
Small detail.
And you came into the office
and I remember he walked in,
and I said to Michael afterwards,
"He wants to do it."
It was the funniest thing.
It was something about
the way he had his...
He was wearing French cuffs
and they weren't done up,
and I...
just that thing, somehow,
I don't know why it was,
I said, "He wants to do it."
Michael's going,
"You think so?"
I said "Yes, he does. He does."
And we were just determined to have him.
Mm-hmm.
Action.
I'm the money.
Every penny of it.
The Treasury has agreed
to stake you in the game.
"Vesper."
I do hope you gave
your parents hell for that.
It was like there wasn't anyone else.
That kept freaking the studio out
'cause we kept saying
there is no one else.
We don't want anyone else.
And they kept trying
to get us to meet people.
I suppose all of these
are a little like hurdles
is what I was saying to myself.
"It's all right.
What's gonna happen is,"
I'm gonna get the script,
I'm gonna read it,
I'm gonna go,
'No, thanks very much,
it's really not...'"
'cause it's like... I mean,
ultimately, that's all
the actor can do really is,
be kind of, like, you know,
you read the script and you go,
"I don't like the script.
Sorry."
Little did I know.
That happens every time.
Yeah, yeah.
But it was Casino Royale.
The story was solid,
the script was really solid.
And it was just like,
I didn't imagine the scope of it.
I didn't imagine, like,
the crane sequence,
or all of those sequences.
I had no idea about any of that.
But I knew this story stuck together.
You know, it just... it flew.
I remember calling you
-to tell you you got the job.
-Yeah.
I went, "Yes?"
She just went,
"Over to you, kiddo."
So I went
and I just grabbed
a bottle of vodka
and some vermouth,
and bought a cocktail shaker,
and went back to my apartment
and started mixing myself vodka martinis.
You know, that's not half bad.
That was the first bit of training.
That was my first bit of exercise.
I think I had a hangover
for, like, three days.
And then, I sent Simon Waterston...
Yeah, he was my trainer, yeah.
And I literally met him
with a rollie
and a bacon sandwich.
That's his first memory of me.
I was literally smoking a cigarette
and eating a bacon sandwich.
And I just said to him,
I said, "I want to change."
And he went, "Okay."
So we did, and then it was
seven days a week from then on.
The way you went
into physical training for it,
I've never seen any actor
do anything like that,
completely change your physique.
You said, "I have to look like
I could do the role."
I mean, it's kind of amazing.
And he trained like an Olympic athlete.
It was just fantastic.
Now, after months of speculation,
the new James Bond
has finally been unmasked,
and his name is Craig, Daniel Craig.
Today,
it was announced that
Brit actor, Daniel Craig,
had beaten hundreds of competitors
to grab the role.
But after four decades
of tall, dark and handsome,
are we really ready
for the first blond Bond?
They're saying they wanted him...
Well, you always get press on Bond.
You get so much attention.
But the lead up was just
absolutely a roller coaster.
You have to say, it does appear
to be casting against type.
To put it kindly, he's a bit
rough around the edges.
I remember
when we did the announcement
with you,
going down the Thames,
and already it started,
because we had the Marines,
and they said he had
to wear a life jacket.
We said, "Okay,
well, he has to."
And then, you know, it started then.
"Oh, Bond, you know,
wearing a life jacket,
how ridiculous."
And then I was grumpy
in the press conference.
No!
You're never grumpy!
Like someone asked a question.
I was like,
"That's a stupid question."
The way I dealt with it,
it was just to be
kind of grisly.
No, I will not go into it.
-Yes?
-Sorry.
But when
the onslaught of press
against him happened
on Casino Royale, it was brutal.
I mean, it was way beyond any...
And it was because of what?
You know, "blond Bond?"
-Like, blond...
-That was very hurtful.
You know, wasn't Roger Moore blond?
I mean, it was so irrational.
They hadn't seen him in the role.
It's just...
It was very, very distressing,
when he was...
I remember we were
in the Bahamas
and he was on that crane sequence,
and he was killing himself
on that crane sequence,
and we would all come back
and then it'd be all over the news,
all over the Internet.
It's just so irresponsible
that people were manufacturing this stuff
based on what?
Based on a couple of teenagers
who had started an Internet thing
called "Craig Not Bond."
But all these news agencies
were treating it
as if it was like real news.
You know, it's an opinion
of a couple of kids
who hadn't seen a foot of film
that the man had shot.
Someone said,
"You might want to go online.
There might be
a bit of an issue."
I was, like, "What?"
I did. I went online
and stayed up all night
and read everything,
'cause that's what happens
if you do that.
And it was tough.
It was really, really tough.
It was hate-filled.
And I woke up the following morning,
"and I went, "Fuck it.
I know the film's
gonna be good."
Action!
It was just horrible.
The whole crew, we were all
just brimming with anger about it,
and trying to act very casual around him.
But we were angry for him
'cause it was so unfair.
Everybody else was in a state about it.
Everybody else who was in this
was going, "God. Oh, my God,
I'm so sorry."
It must be awful," and like that.
I was like, "It's fine.
It's all good.
Come on, let's crack on
with it."
'Cause I knew we were doing
something really special.
It's a tribute to Daniel
that he could look past it,
but a lot of people can't.
And people who work on the film,
it affects the morale.
Also, I remember going back
to the horrendous time in the Bahamas.
We were besieged with paparazzi.
I mean, one guy was like...
buried himself in the sand
sort of the night before
we were gonna be on the beach.
I mean, it was insane.
It was like, you know, crazy.
And I remember Daniel
coming out of the water
and the whole crew going,
"Oh, my God."
And that was probably the only time
when a pap shot...
Because it was a pap shot that broke...
But then, of course,
changed the whole idea of,
you know, Daniel and what
his Bond was gonna be like.
"Suddenly everybody went, "Oh, my God!
This is the guy?
The blond guy?"
"Who cares?"
Look at those tits!
The whole thing changed.
And then it was a whole different thing,
and he was suddenly
the coolest guy on Earth.
It was exciting.
You've redeemed this moment.
Bloody hell!
These two gave me a voice.
I mean, I asked for it.
I spoke to both of you.
I remember having
this conversation.
I said, "If you're going to
make me do this..."
I didn't say that.
I think you did.
But it was being allowed to discuss it.
You know, Martin and I,
we argued a lot on it.
He didn't get...
He never got upset with me.
You know, we used to have
these kind of
amazing pitch battles on set.
They were never angry.
They were just like,
"I don't agree with you!"
"I don't agree with you!"
But somehow, it elevated it.
It was allowing me to see...
If I saw something that
I didn't think was right,
I would go and discuss it.
And if I was wrong, I'd go,
"Okay, I'm wrong,
I'm wrong, I'm wrong."
But if I thought it was right,
I felt like I had the power
to be able to go,
"I know I'm right about this."
And there's a couple
of scenes in the movie
which I'm really glad I spoke up about,
-and they work.
-Action.
But Martin let me do that.
The shower scene which is, I think,
one of the most
beautiful scenes ever
in a movie,
you know, after that fight
in the hallway,
and in the script, it was written that...
that, uh, Eva Green was in her underwear,
and you were in, you know...
And Daniel said,
"No, they don't get undressed.
They're in their clothes."
And I just remember that day.
Oh, my God.
It's like there's blood on my hands.
It's not coming off.
Here, let's see.
It was there in the script, but it was...
It was sort of hinted at in the script,
and I just was all about,
if we're gonna go with the violence,
we're gonna go with the reality of it.
You know, it's still a James Bond movie,
but the point of it is,
I wanted to see what happens,
the effect it has on people.
"And I was like, "She's in shock,
so she's sitting in the shower
in her clothes."
It made complete sense to me.
-You cold?
-Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Come here.
I remember talking
to the composer and saying,
-"That's the moment they fall in love.
-" -Mm.
And the music
in that scene
is just so beautiful.
-David Arnold.
-Mm.
The thing that
Daniel brought to the character
and the series,
was Bond's inner life
and the emotional life
and the complexity of the emotional life,
which was in the books,
but never really translated
onto the screen
until he came on.
And we were ready to make a shift
because we were getting
too fantastical in our series.
And Daniel's an actor
who can bring it down
to where it belongs,
make it more real,
make it more emotionally connected
and make it more dramatic.
And we wanted to make that change.
So we needed him to do it
because we couldn't do it
with anybody else.
Barbara and Michael
wanted to do something,
change it for a reason.
They wanted to turn it on its head.
"And I was like, "I'm up for that.
If that is what you want to do,
I'm up for that."
-Vodka martini.
-Shaken or stirred?
Do I look like I give a damn?
A lot of the kind of,
the cliches, as it were,
that have become cliches over the years
'cause they've become Bond tropes,
"I was like, "We can't really do that.
We have to try
and reinvent it."
But saying that,
these were really,
really difficult to write for.
Putting words in James Bond's mouth...
Because all that
anybody remembers
are the one-liners.
You know, for me,
the funniest lines
are out of reality.
The greatest Bond lines
are stress release.
They're like a release of,
you know, of tension,
so that you don't...
"Oh, God!"
You know, 'cause he's
in a terrible situation.
You have to create that.
You have to create the tension
and then have the one-liner.
You can't just...
The one-liner's not the scene.
I've got a little itch
down there.
Would you mind?
No.
No! No.
No, no.
To the right. To the right!
To the right!
You are a funny, man. Mr. Bond.
Well, it was the same
with "Bond, James Bond."
Exactly.
I mean, I know. I mean,
Pierce talks about it.
But it's like, you know,
saying that fucking line...
I mean, if I have to say it,
I'll say it once to myself.
And then you're on set
and you think, "Oh, I'm fine,
I'm fine, I'm fine."
And then you say it,
and it's like this...
The weight of it is just...
And I think I try to be
quite cool about these things,
but it's impossible.
I mean, I don't know
how many takes we did
at the end of Casino Royale.
Literally, there are takes with,
"The name's Bond, James Bond."
It's like...
It's like I'm a 13-year-old
whose voice is breaking.
The name's Bond.
James Bond.
The film was good,
but because people's expectations were,
"Let's go and see
this train wreck."
I mean, I think a lot of people
did think, you know,
"We're going to see it for
the shits and giggles factor,"
or the fact that this...
"Let's go and see
this one-shot wonder."
I mean, all of that going on.
And it's like...
The response was...
I mean, you know, I remember
being at the premiere,
which was Leicester Square?
Mm-hmm.
That was just like...
I mean, I was like,
"What is going on?"
And the credits came up,
I mean, the pre-title sequence.
And it's not the biggest
pre-title sequence
'cause it's just a fight
in the bathroom, isn't it?
That's all it is.
It's black and white
and it's not
that particularly long.
It's not particularly
ambitious like that.
And it came to the ending
and the music came in,
and everybody, I mean,
everybody started cheering.
And it was just like, you know,
I'm kinda feeling up about it now.
Yeah, I mean, it was just...
It just went... Skyrocketed.
The movie went crazy.
And the reviews were crazy, right?
The reviews were great.
And the numbers were great.
Although, I think all that bad publicity,
we could've done better without it.
I think we could have done a lot better.
But we were good.
Solid success.
Please welcome Mr. Daniel Craig,
ladies and gentlemen.
Daniel Craig
proved all this doubters wrong
with his debut in Casino Royale.
The most successful yet.
The highest grossing
Bond movie in history...
Box office hit, Casino Royale,
becomes the first ever in the series
to be shown in China's cinemas.
The super spy has finally
conquered the Communists.
He really has completely
re-energized this franchise.
Congratulations.
You know, I think
a celebration's in order.
On Quantum, however,
uh, we had a writer's strike.
We had a script,
it wasn't completed,
but it was nearly completed,
and we had a writer's strike.
I mean, the movie kind of works.
It's not Casino Royale,
and that was always gonna be...
It was, like, literally,
"troubling second album"
syndrome.
In a way, we could not top Casino.
It's easy to say that.
Of course we wanted
to top Casino but, you know...
We were up
against the writer's strike
on one end...
Which everybody knew was coming.
We knew it was coming,
and we hadn't quite gotten
the script right.
We didn't have a director yet.
And on the other end was the...
There was supposed to be
an actors' strike,
the SAG strike.
"So we were like, "If we don't go now,
it's gonna be
never-never land."
So, we basically
started shooting
without a script,
which is never a good idea.
But the script was turned in,
and I remember the writer
who turned the script in
and then picked up his check,
and then picked up his placard
and stood outside the studio striking.
Anyway, so, we were kind of screwed,
and we had to all kind of muddle in
and try and make the story work,
and it wasn't really working that great.
But, you know, I look back at the movie
and, you know, it's still a good movie.
There's some really
special moments in that film.
-Yeah.
-Very special.
I don't know if that movie
adheres together
as well as it should,
but that was just because
the story, it wasn't solid.
We just didn't get
Bond's journey right in it,
which is the key.
It wasn't totally focused on his journey,
and I think, sometimes we get...
we can get too wound up in plot
rather than keep to the story,
which is an issue
for these kind of films.
Three, two, one, action!
What had happened, weirdly,
and it's not nobody's fault,
I mean, it's my fault, mainly is that...
You know, the stunt guys were like,
"Oh, God, you can do this."
So I'd get more and more and more to do.
I was loving it, it was great,
I was jumping
all over the place.
So I threw myself into the stunts
more than I threw myself...
'Cause the script was a bit kind of like,
"I don't know what to do
about the script. I can't...
I'm not a writer,
I can't help."
And even though Marc and I
would sit and we'd try
and bash things out,
I couldn't really help.
So I threw myself into the stunts,
and I basically volunteered
for every single stunt
in the movie.
And that was... with hindsight,
that was a bad mistake,
'cause I got badly hurt.
But on Quantum, I think
I was sort of overwhelmed.
My world had turned upside down.
I mean, upside down.
My personal life was affected
by being that famous all of a sudden.
I can honestly say I was
sort of in a bit of
cloud cuckoo land.
When you think about it, I mean,
Daniel went from
not being a household name
to being on the tea towels,
literally on the tea towels.
That's a huge transformation for someone.
And I mean, I remember,
you were sort of under siege
at a point, weren't you?
I mean, I think I was
physically under siege,
but also, I was mentally under siege.
I mean, when there are people
in trees outside your house,
you're kind of, you know, they say,
"What have you got
to be paranoid about?"
I mean, I didn't go out.
I mean, I literally kind of
would lock myself in
and close the curtains
'cause I didn't know how to handle it.
And I don't still.
I mean,
there were times
I was worried for him
because he wasn't enjoying life.
You know, it felt like
it was really a big sacrifice.
And then we did a play together
in New York.
-Yeah.
-I think that...
And Hugh Jackman taught me a few things.
Yeah. I mean,
that was interesting because...
Well, one of things
that you told me
was that I'm not Hugh.
- Yeah.
- - Because Hugh is extraordinary.
I mean, his wife calls him Senator Jack.
-So, it's like...
-So, he goes out, you know,
like, he waves to the crowd
and talks to everybody,
kisses every baby.
I mean,
he's, like, there for hours
every night after the show,
and I kind of, it isn't...
I joined in.
I kind of was like, "Okay."
I mean, you know,
'cause they were there
to see us both.
And they were both...
And they were excited
to see us both. And it was...
So I think that broke a big...
-The enjoyment...
-It broke a boil.
Yeah, it broke a boil, exactly.
It kind of, it just made it that,
"You know what,
it ain't that bad."
It became fun, it became fun.
Where the hell have you been?
You didn't get the postcard?
You should try it sometime,
get away from it all.
It really lends perspective.
When we got to Skyfall,
it was about building the family again.
-The MI6 family.
-Yes.
Because we knew that
Judy would be departing.
Getting Ralph involved.
-Getting Ralph involved.
-Yeah. And Ben.
And Ben and Naomie Harris.
So we felt we were betting
into something again,
and giving Bond his family,
his foundation back.
But it was like we have to have a new Q
and you know,
the casting of Ben was
just like this genius thing.
It just pleased everybody.
Always makes me feel a little melancholy.
A grand old warship
being ignominiously hauled away
for scrap.
Inevitability of time, don't you think?
What do you see?
A bloody big ship.
Excuse me.
I'm your new Quartermaster.
You must be joking.
Why? Because I'm not wearing
a lab coat?
Because you still have spots.
I got very excited
when I saw my friend, Daniel,
play James Bond
in Casino Royale.
And I thought it opened up all sorts of
wonderful possibilities
for the character.
And I wanted a huge challenge
and for me,
this was an enormous challenge.
Daniel had suggested Sam,
which was a really great idea.
And, you know,
Sam was coming back to England,
and he'd never done anything
on that sort of scale before.
And it was a great combination.
Yeah, you know,
Sam came in
and he loves actors,
and he loves directing actors.
And we had a great story,
and all the actors came up
and turned up.
They created something.
They reinvented it.
They did it in a way that's
incredibly memorable, I think.
Are you sure this is about M?
It's about her,
and you and me.
You see, we are the last two rats.
We can either eat each other...
Hmm?
Or eat everyone else.
How you're trying to remember
your training now.
What's the regulation to cover this?
Well, first time for everything,
-yes?
-Hmm.
What makes you think
this is my first time?
Oh, Mr. Bond...
That scene with you and Javier,
when the sort of
sexual innuendo
between the two of you
and you say,
"What makes you think
this is my first time?"
I mean, I remember
we were told
to cut that line by the studio,
and we said, "No, no, no."
We resisted. We resisted.
And I remember the night of the premier
that line, just the whole place
rocked it then, with that line.
I remember looking at
the studio executive
who was in the next thing,
going, "See, told you."
Now we have the poster.
-Finally.
-Yeah.
Skyfall is an example again,
of a complex story
and a very simple plot.
And those emotional stories really work,
and both, Casino Royale and Skyfall
demonstrate that.
We had an ending,
you know,
we had an ending for Skyfall.
We'd figured the ending out
very early on.
It was emotionally,
very emotionally affecting.
I suppose it's
too late to make a run for it.
Well, I am game if you are.
Let's just get one thing right.
The day we filmed her death was...
was very emotional,
I mean, it's...
It was difficult.
I mean,
we joked most of the day,
but it was actually...
It was very tough to do
because she's been
part of Bond for a while.
And it's like she has something
about her,
and it comes across in her acting,
and it comes across
in everything she does.
It was an extremely
emotional day for all of us.
Um, I think for Judy, who was
really holding it together.
Um,
but, you know, for me also because...
during the, sort of,
17 years that we've been
working together,
you know, we've all been through a lot.
And, um, she's reinvented this character.
And it was pretty devastating.
We were all...
We were all a mess.
Well, I was a mess, particularly.
I mean, on a purely personal level
the fact that I got to act
with Judy Dench,
it was a lifelong ambition.
The fact that I got to act
with Judi Dench, being my M,
is just beyond the realms.
Skyfall, for me, was a culmination of...
It was every...
It kind of ticked all my boxes.
Cut. Cut, thank you.
There were
so many things about Skyfall
that were terrific.
The story, and then,
bringing the family together,
and the really emotional ending
and all that.
Then we also had Adele,
and we also had the Olympics.
And that was just incredible.
The stars
of the new James Bond movie,
Skyfall,
are with us.
Yes, they are.
Daniel Craig is here.
The last time we saw you
as Bond with Her Majesty,
-the Olympics...
-Mm-hmm.
-...how long was that
-in the planning?
-Quite a long time.
Danny Boyle came to visit me on set.
He sat me down,
he told me what he wanted to do
and I walked out and said,
"Enough of that."
I really thought
he was just pulling my leg.
So, um, anyway, the whole kind of thing,
um, you know, came about.
The next thing I know I'm at the Palace.
'Cause you must've thought,
"Oh, I'll agree to it
but it'll never happen."
-You know, you can... - Well, I didn't...
-I mean, I thought
they hadn't sort of had
the okay from the Palace,
but apparently,
they got that first
and then asked me.
So I didn't have much choice.
Oh, yeah.
Imagine if you'd turned it down.
... all the way
around the stadium,
a James Bond epic...
starring...
Daniel Craig,
and Her Majesty, The Queen.
The British Artist of the Year Award
was created in 2006,
and the first recipient
was another incredibly
talented actor, Rachel Weisz,
Daniel's wife.
Britannia Award, the best of British...
Sorry, I'll get it together on the day.
-Best British...
...For British Artist of the Year.
British Artist.
Daniel, artist.
And now, six years later,
with Rachel's patient tutelage...
...and coaching,
he is in the position
to be able to accept...
...that 11 people
got offered the role before him.
But don't... Uh,
don't put any of this.
Clooney, I think was first, Clooney.
I got offered, um...
I think even, yeah, Jude Law
got offered it.
Will Ferrell got offered it.
Put your hands together
for the British Artist of The Year,
Mr. Daniel Craig.
Thank you, Bafta for this.
It's incredibly humbling
to receive this honor
with all these amazingly talented people.
Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli,
together with Cubby Broccoli,
they made a franchise last 50 years.
And, uh, they allowed me
to be part of it,
so thank you.
Thank you.
We had to convince Sam to do it.
I mean, you know,
Sam was very much
of two minds about it.
He felt he'd done it
and he'd done it
so successfully
to drag him back in,
but he got into it.
He approached this whole series
with tremendous enthusiasm, I would say.
"You know, "Let's get the car,
and let's do
the biggest explosion."
He just really embraced all the tropes,
which was... it was time
for that to happen.
And, uh, and it was fun.
Yeah, I always wanted to have the gadgets
and things back in the movie.
It was just
bringing them back in
in an original way.
And I think Sam and I
had this conversation
before Spectre.
It was how do we make it
happen, so it feels fresh.
But I think we needed to find a big hook
to the story.
And then, obviously, what came up was
the idea of bringing Blofeld back.
Welcome, James.
It's been a long time.
But finally, here we are.
What took you so long?
Cuckoo.
I had a lot of fun on that movie,
but part of the problem
was that maybe I broke my leg.
And we had a choice,
we could shut down for nine months,
and I could go and get an operation,
or I could, I could
crack on with the movie.
And, I didn't want to
shut down for nine months.
I-I thought I've got to finish the movie,
so I wore basically a bionic leg
for the rest of the...
rest of the film,
which was not the greatest way
to do a Bond movie.
And you didn't stop doing all the action?
No.
You know, unfortunately,
it was massively distracting for me.
So I probably was talking through my ass
when I said it was
the best experience of my life
because I was trying
to juggle an awful lot
of things.
I had to psychologically juggle
my physical state.
Hang on.
Trouble is,
with the energy that I had,
the leg would give way,
which is kinda of great
when you watch me walking
at the beginning of the movie,
and I climb out of a window,
walk down a ledge
and jump down another ledge,
and jump down another ledge.
I'm literally going,
"Don't give way,
don't give way,
don't give way."
I mean, I'm tired, got a wire on,
but I mean, it's very traumatic.
'Cause I'm trying to be cool,
but my leg is... it's shot.
Here we go.
Ready, everyone?
Let's all fall back.
And, action!
He was in excruciating pain
on that whole sequence.
The opening sequence was redesigned
for him to be more stealth-like,
because he could barely walk.
I remember, I was just
looking at him and thinking,
"I don't know how
he's actually managing this."
I mean, we had 1,500 extras.
You know, it was a massive,
massive sequence.
We had shut down the square for four days
and he was like,
"I'm going to do it," you know?
But we changed the idea
and I just said, "Look,
we keep it mysterious."
So basically, I'm doing
a lot of entrances and exits,
and I think that kind of worked.
In a way, it was fortuitous,
because that scene is exceptional.
And if we'd shut down,
God knows, I don't know,
-I don't...
- We never
-could have achieved that.
Well, you know what,
they said nine-month recovery.
I mean, it may be
for a 22-year-old athlete,
but it's not for a man
of advancing years.
I don't wat to
kind of go on about
how hard Spectre was,
but it was, it was tough,
and I needed a break.
I needed to kind of switch off.
I needed to get away.
And I genuinely felt,
psychologically,
at the end of that film,
"Maybe I'm just too old."
And the problem is
the way we started
these films...
I've started my tenure at this,
was throwing myself at it
like a bull in a China shop.
So, to sort of not do that,
seemed to be like,
"What's the point?"
I mean, it just felt,
like, completely wrong.
I mean, I, genuinely,
I'd convinced myself
that was it.
Daniel Craig is definitely
not doing another Bond movie.
In a super candid interview with Time Out
while doing press for Spectre,
Daniel Craig is asked
if he'd want to do another Bond movie.
"His answer, "Now
I'd rather break this glass
and slash my wrists."
It was two days
after I finished shooting
the last movie.
-Sure.
-I went straight into an interview
-and someone said,
"Would you do another one?"
-Oh, okay.
And I went, "No!"
I... And instead of
saying something, you know,
um, with style and grace.
I gave a really stupid answer.
Someone gave me
a good analogy, which is that,
if you were asked 200 meters
from the end of a marathon,
whether you'd run
another marathon,
you'd be...
you know, you'd be fairly
short and sweet
about the answer,
which is what I was.
I've read that it will be your last.
-Will this be your last?
-I don't know.
-The burning question, will it be your last one?
-Who knows.
Are you gonna stay or are you gonna go...
I don't know. I just don't know.
The honest answer is, I don't know.
I don't know.
Daniel Craig, will you return
as James Bond?
Yes.
You know, Barbara drives a hard bargain.
Thanks so much. Daniel Craig...
So, I don't think
I was ever really gonna
get away with leaving
after Spectre.
That was supposed to be his last movie,
although I told him it wasn't gonna be.
It was supposed to be my last movie
but Barbara, she said, "No."
"I said, "There is unfinished business.
We haven't told the rest of the story.
"There is still story
to be told here."
So we started this one
with the idea that,
"Wow, we got to go for broke."
The production
on the latest film, Bond 25,
was reportedly just shut down.
It's being reported that
Craig injured himself in Jamaica
on the set of Bond 25.
We had the injury, but we also had...
You know, we started
with one director
and we got another,
and then we had script issues
that went on and on and on.
And it's also emotionally tough
being Daniel's last one.
It's tough on Barbara, it's tough on me,
it's tough on Daniel, especially.
And you know, you don't appreciate that.
You don't appreciate how
emotionally difficult it is
to do these things.
There always is a struggle.
Come on, it's always what it is.
But this has been...
It's been harder the most,
but, because we were
up against it so much.
People were just like,
"We're gonna get it done.
This is the last one."
And it felt like
everybody just bought into it.
I'm just so thrilled
at how this film has turned out.
There's something about this film that...
The culmination of the five films
and this film in particular,
it makes me feel, as if
not only has he made his mark
on the Bond franchise,
but he has now made his mark
in cinematic history.
I mean, the night he completed the role
and we wrapped the film,
was like a real moment.
Mm-hmm. And the last shot
was him running down an alley,
disappearing out of shot.
It was just unbelievable.
And, cut.
-Cut the light.
...All right, that's it, guys.
It was a historic moment.
Everyone came.
We were night shooting,
and everyone came down
to kind of witness the moment.
Because we knew how significant it was.
It was deeply emotional.
I mean, everyone was sobbing.
-Literally sobbing.
-People wouldn't leave.
You know,
usually on night shifts,
everybody leaves, no?
They just stood around
and, just embraced each other.
You know, I've been
doing this for a while
and there's some of the people
I've actually worked with here,
I think, most of my career,
which is getting on
for about 30 years.
So that's quite a long time.
And a lot of people here
worked on five pictures with me,
and I know there's
a lot of things said about
what I think about these films,
or all of those whatever.
But I've loved every single second
of these movies, and especially this one,
because I've got up every morning,
and I've had the chance
to work with you guys.
And that has been
one of the greatest honors
of my life.
So...
I look at what I've done,
and go,
"That's part of Goldfinger."
And I'm like, "Wow."
I mean, I'm connected to Goldfinger,
I'm connected to Dr. No.
I'm connected to Live and Let Die.
I mean, my tenure is what it is,
but it's only part of something bigger.
That's just...
That's what it is,
when you look back and go...
I mean, genuinely, I feel like that.
But I look at the films
and I'm incredibly proud
of every single one of them.
-I know we've done our best.
-Yeah, for sure.
I mean, really done our best.
Yeah, I mean,
he's sitting here,
so it's so awkward to say it,
but Daniel has just taken this...
the character, or the series,
the whole thing
to a place that is so extraordinary
and so emotionally satisfying,
that I cannot imagine Bond after Daniel.
Let's be honest,
leaving this role is not easy.
It's a really difficult thing to do.
And, you know,
I can be as brazen and blase
about it as I like,
it's still tough to do.
It's still tough to walk away from.
And it's not about
money and fame
because I've got it.
I mean, I'm incredibly lucky
and incredibly fortunate
to have been able to do this.
It's given me more things
in my life
than I could ever wish for.
And it's not about any of those things.
It's about a psychological connection
to something that has taken up
15 years of my life.
And to walk away from
something like that,
is very, very tricky.
But I think it's okay now.
I do.
And it's because
we did this movie, really.
I mean, I just think that
it's all right now.