Why did Daniel Craig try to sabotage his first meeting with James Bond?

Every actor who has played James Bond has had a love/hate relationship with the role. to Sean Connery The emergence of the Bond films was a double-edged swordin which the Scottish star eventually felt trapped by playing England’s greatest spy, leading him to make a series of starkly dark films in the 1970s, including Connery’s favorite Christopher Nolan movie“The Crime” in 1973. Throughout this period, Connery could be heard talking about his “hate” of James Bond, and even his desire to “kill” him.

This genre set a precedent, as every actor who played 007 in the following years developed a similar relationship with the role. Roger Moore was never comfortable using weapons, and after leaving the saga Pierce Brosnan claimed (trans CBS) because he regretted the “stupid one-liners” and was glad that he was no longer “bound by some shrinking images.” Timothy Dalton was perhaps the most comfortable in the role, but even then he had a difficult time after 1989’s License to Kill, initially deciding not to return as Bond before apparently changing his mind and finding EON Productions lined up Brosnan to replace him. Its place. for him. Even George Lazenby had problems behind the scenes after playing Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, struggling to reconcile his own affection for the countercultural zeitgeist of the time with the persona of a man who would die for queen and country. .

But the most strange and interesting relationship between actor and role belongs to Daniel Craig. Not only was the star of the 2006 film “Casino Royale” clearly uncomfortable playing a superspy during his tenure, but he had made up his mind about the whole thing even before he was cast — developing a strategy to undermine his first encounter with the role that backfired. in the end.

Daniel Craig has perhaps been the most vocal of all the James Bond actors regarding his anti-007 sentiments – at least since Connery has said he wouldn’t mind taking on the character. The British star infamously told Timeout London in 2013 (via The Guardian) that he would “rather slit his own wrists” than play Bond after his fourth outing as the character. But while you might initially think the actor is becoming jaded with each successive installment in the modern franchise, he’s actually been anti-Bond from the beginning.

As pointed out in A GQ Before Craig was cast as 007 in “Casino Royale”, he had convinced himself that he did not want to be Bond, while agreeing to meet with producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. “It was literally like, ‘Damn, I don’t want this,'” the actor said. How dare you? How dare you offer this to me? “So, when he went to the audition he clearly took a risqué approach to his dressing, wearing a shirt without cufflinks, with a jacket that revealed his shirt sleeves. He added: “I thought to myself: ‘Fuck it, I’ll just let them hang down like that.'”

What made Craig so upset? This remains unclear, but based on his comments, it seems that the actor may have viewed the role as beneath him in some way. Or perhaps he was wary of being trapped in the same hole that Connery found himself in nearly 40 years ago. Whatever the reason, the actor recently presented An exciting performance in the movie “Queer” by Luca Guadagnino. He was apparently determined to be Bond (but he still went to the audition). Fortunately for fans of what remains Best Bond movie ever “Casino Royale” Craig’s attempt to sabotage the test did not go as expected.

After Daniel Craig showed up to a James Bond audition in what he thought were inappropriate clothes, he was no doubt surprised to learn that his aloofness had impressed Bond’s secretaries. In making sectionLongtime Bond film producer Barbara Broccoli remembered Craig’s cozy dress as the exact thing that convinced her he was ready to be the new 007. She said:

“Michael (J. Wilson) and I really wanted it. We just wanted it. The only problem was he didn’t want to do it. (He) came into the office and I remember he walked in and I said to Michael and then, ‘He wants to do it.’ It was the most Amusement, it was something about the way he (…) was wearing the French cuffs and it wasn’t finished and (…) this thing somehow, I don’t know why, I said, ‘He wants to do it.’

It seems, then, that Craig’s clumsy handcuffs are what ultimately earned him the role of James Bond. But that was actually just the beginning of the actor’s difficult relationship with 007. Even after he landed the role but before filming began, the actor was seemingly intent on ruining his image in the most enduring pioneering film series.

As the GQ article points out, when Casino Royale director Martin Campbell called Craig in for a screen test, the actor refused to play ball. Campbell asked the actor to take a grape from the fruit bowl and throw it into his mouth, but the star refused, “causing an argument on his first day on the job.” “I just said, ‘No,'” Craig said. I said: No, I can’t. “I’m not going to do it. You’re doing it. It was about, ‘How am I going to be James Bond?'” Surprisingly, Craig has managed to retain his status as the new Bond, likely due to Broccoli’s surprising affinity with her star. Outright hostility to this role.

Despite his reservations about playing James Bond, Daniel Craig certainly nailed it in the end, at least in the first part of the film. Even in follow-up, Quantum of Solace – which remains the biggest disaster in Bond history but not for the reason you might think -Craig was good. But behind the scenes, he never seemed to settle down.

Years after making “Casino Royale,” Craig spoke to his co-star Mads Mikkelsen diverserecalling how he didn’t feel able to join the rest of the cast in poker games between scenes, saying: “What you were asking me to do was go away and relax and I couldn’t do that.” In this case, you would think that the pressure of making his version of Bond debut and leading a legendary franchise had gotten to the actor – and this was undoubtedly part of it.

But we know that Craig was against the whole idea of ​​Bond even before he auditioned. By his own admission, he literally tried to sabotage his choice at every turn. So, without being crass, the question that arises when you consider all this anti-Bond sentiment in its entirety seems quite simple: What the hell is Craig’s problem?

In fairness, I think Craig’s growing resentment towards Bond actually helped him find a new dimension within the character. His intense portrayal in “Royale” remains my favorite to this day, and that continues in “Quantum,” which is a sequel to “Royale,” which despite what you may have heard, is a good movie. The problem came when Craig seemed to have given up his hatred of Bond and adopted his “I don’t care” attitude (another quote from his famous interview with Timeout London). I would be unapologetically angry about being in a James Bond movie because of the more vulgar approach he and EON took after 2012’s “Skyfall.” Either way, the Craig era is now over, and the world is waiting for the announcement of the next actor to be seriously bothered to play the role. 007.