Daniel Craig Discusses Bond Franchise, Spectre
In an extensive interview with Alex Bilmes of Esquire Magazine, big screen Bond actor number 6, Daniel Craig, shares many thoughts on Skyfall, Spectre and the history and future of the James Bond franchise.
After the successful return-to-form many hailed Skyfall as, Director Sam Mendes and Craig admitted that they initially weren’t feeling so confident about joining forces again for a follow up. “What the fuck are we going to do?” “I think everyone was just daunted, understandably,” he says. “Like, it’s ‘the biggest British movie of all time’. What does it fucking mean? Where do we go from there? How do you process that? It could have been an albatross around everyone’s necks. It turned out not to be, but there was a massive amount of pressure at the beginning.”
So, how confident is Craig about Spectre now that it’s around the corner from its theatrical premiere? “I feel like we’ve all done our absolute fucking best and that’s a good feeling.” “It’s Skyfall times 10!,” he says, assuring the interviewer that the classic Bond ethos is in place.
Craig also says that he’s keenly aware of the misogynistic history of the character and that a lot of his career as Bond has been coming to terms with those perhaps dated aspect of the character in a 21st century cultural climate. “Hopefully my Bond is not as sexist and misogynistic as [earlier incarnations]. The world has changed. I am certainly not that person. But he is, and so what does that mean? It means you cast great actresses and make the parts as good as you can for the women in the movies.”
“He’s very fucking lonely. There’s a great sadness. He’s fucking these beautiful women but then they leave and it’s… sad. And as a man gets older it’s not a good look. It might be a nice fantasy – that’s debatable – but the reality, after a couple of months…”
Craig seems pretty adamant that he’ll be wrapping up his tenure as James Bond after Spectre, even though he’s currently under contract for more films. “At this moment, no [he doesn’t wish to play Bond again after Spectre]. I have a life and I’ve got to get on with it a bit. But we’ll see.”
We’ll have to see how Spectre turns out when it hits theaters November 6th. Check out the full Esquire interview here.
