After Pierce Brosnan was dropped from the James Bond franchise, Daniel Craig stepped up to the plate. Bond bosses Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson hired the star just a few years later, and in 2006 his debut 007 movie, Casino Royale, hit cinemas. After that, Craig didn’t think he would be returning.
Craig launched himself into the 007 franchise with a refreshing take on the character. Rather than being just a suave and sophisticated spy, he brought a new sense of brutality to the role that had not ever been seen before.
After that, he figured he was done. After sitting down at the glitzy event and watching his debut 007 movie for the first time, Craig recalled: “I was driving away from the Berlin premiere of Casino Royale with Barbara Broccoli. I had genuinely thought I would do one Bond movie, then it would be over.”
However, after seeing the film, he knew he was going to be locked into the role for a long time. “By then we knew we had a hit on our hands,” he recalled. “I realised the enormity of it.
He asked Broccoli: “How many more? Three? Four?” She replied: “Four!” Then he asked the question that would secure his finality to the role in years to come.
In the final moments of Craig’s last 007 movie, No Time To Die, James Bond was killed off. After being infected with a virus that would kill his lover, Madeleine Swann, and their daughter, Mathilde, he had no choice but to sacrifice himself.
Bond remained on an island that was about to explode in order to keep his family safe. Craig ultimately felt this was the perfect ending for his version of the character’s story.
“Real tragedy is when you have absolutely no choice,” he said. “We had to find a way to make his death no choice. It was the happiest Bond had ever been because he’d found exactly what he was looking for. Like everyone on Earth, he was just looking for love.”
Since Craig’s exit from Bond, he has reportedly been a lot “happier” acting.
Craig reprised his role as Benoit Blanc in the recently released Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story. In the film, he teamed up once again with Dave Bautista, who played Mr Hinx in Spectre.
While speaking about working with Craig again, Bautista said: “He was really put through it on Bond. You could feel that he was under a lot of pressure. He didn’t seem like the happiest person on Bond. But on Glass Onion, it was the complete opposite.”
He added that Craig was “just so much fun” on Glass Onion. “He was always smiling and happy and interacted a lot more,” he said. “On Spectre, there wasn’t a whole lot of interaction with the whole cast. But Glass Onion was the complete opposite. We were always together. So I got to know him better as a person and actually see him do his thing.”
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