By Garry Maddox
Daniel Craig does not hesitate.
The question that has the star of the James Bond movies leaping into the flames is a follow-up to him saying, 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 calm down, I’m not James Bond.’ ” Credit: reg Williams/Danjaq LLC/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
So on a Zoom call a couple of days before the world premiere of what Craig has insisted will be his last time playing Bond, it’s fair to ask what it would take for him to return to the role again.
“A f---ing miracle,” he says, before realising what he’s done. “Oh god, that’s the quote now, isn’t it? I’ve just blown that now, haven’t I?”
Craig, who is laughing by this time, need not have worried about an inflammatory headline.
His fifth and final movie as the suavely brooding MI6 super spy – barring that miracle – has been a hit. After the release was delayed three times during the pandemic, the 25th Bond movie in the official series quickly raced past $US600 million ($800 million) before its Australian opening next Thursday.
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective), it is an epic, emotional and sombre culmination to Craig’s 15 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-bound theme song from Billie Eilish.
Deflecting the regular criticism that the series lacks strong women, No Time To Die has three – joining Swann are highly skilled agents Paloma (Ana de Armas) and Nomi (Lashana Lynch), with dialogue spiced up by co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag).
When he was cast to take over from Pierce Brosnan in 2005, 37-year-old Craig was an accomplished actor known mostly for character roles that were neither athletic nor suave. He trained so hard to put on muscle that a consignment of crisp white shirts for Casino Royale had to be remade.
“I don’t want to just turn up, do the job, go home. That’s not the way I do things.” Daniel Craig with Ralph Fiennes as M in No Time To Die. Credit: Nicola Dove/Eon/MGM
At 53, Craig has redefined an iconic character and become famous, wealthy and, on the past two movies, a producer. While that was not the intention, Craig says he told series producer Barbara Broccoli early on that he wanted a say in the movies.
“I said, ‘If you just give me a say in all aspects of this, so that I feel like I’m part of it, then I can stand up there and pretend to be James Bond,’ ” he says.
“ ‘It’s a big ask but if you empower me, I’ll give it back to you.’
“She, incredibly generously, did and I’ve regretted it ever since,” Craig says, laughing again.
“I’ve got a big mouth, as Barbara will tell you. I don’t want to just turn up, do the job, go home. That’s not the way I do things.”
While there are richer female characters this time, Craig says the #MeToo movement has not changed his view of how women should be represented.
“It’s no different to how I’ve always wanted to have women represented in the movies, which is to have characters who are as complex and as flawed and as interesting as Bond is,” he says.
“That’s a selfish angle because the more you load the film with interesting characters, the more interesting the film is. We’ve wanted to put positive role models onto the screen because it’s important to do so. The world is changing, hopefully for the better in many ways, and it’s our job as filmmakers to make sure that we represent on film.”
So does Craig find that people he meets confuse him with Bond?
“Kind of but not really,” he says. “I live in Brooklyn, occasionally I’ll get a ‘hello’. But people call me by my name. It’s very nice. Weirdly, blokes in a bar who’ve had a few drinks can often go [he makes a rumbling sound] and I’m like, ‘Just calm down, I’m not James Bond.’ ”
“I really didn’t want 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’m not really James Bond, you know,’ ” he says. “So they confuse me occasionally but I put them straight.”
While Broccoli would have thought about casting a new 007 for years, she is not giving anything away yet.
“I’m in denial,” she says. “I plan to stay in denial well into the future. As far as I’m concerned, Daniel Craig is James Bond ... He’s going to be sorely, sorely missed.”
Craig recognises the series will need to be reinvented around whoever takes over.
“It’s great that the women are not objectified and sexualised as they used to be.” Lea Seydoux with Daniel Craig in No Time to Die.Credit: Nicola Dove/Eon/MGM
“It will adapt,” he says. “The movies have always reflected the times that we’re in and that’s one of the reasons they’ve lasted so long. From Cubby [Broccoli] to [daughter] Barbara to [fellow producer] Michael [Wilson], they’ve kept it as event cinema, still as relevant as it ever was ...
“Each generation has had a connection to their Bond, to their time, and then to the ones from the past. It’s a testament to the way they’ve nurtured and held on to this story.”
Having grown up in France, Seydoux says she did not watch any Bond movies until Casino Royale but has since caught some earlier instalments. She appreciates the female characters have become much more 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 real depth.”
The deepening relationship with Bond puts them both into danger in the movie.
“A relationship with Bond is not easy because he wears masks and he doesn’t trust people,” Seydoux says. “But I think that Madeleine is a bit the same.
“This time she is much more developed and you get to know her a bit more. You 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 piece of work.
“In Spectre, we saw her as a strong and powerful woman but this time she shows her vulnerability.”
Malek, who joins fellow Oscar winners Christoph Waltz and Javier Bardem as recent villains, says it was extraordinary entering the Bond universe.
A consignment of crisp white shirts had to be remade after Daniel Craig put on muscle while training for Casino Royale.Credit: Eon
“It’s everything you want it to be,” he says. “You 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 can feel the history in that, just 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’m 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 be this cackling megalomaniac that we’ve seen before,” he says. “And as much as I love those types of villains, I thought that when it comes to Daniel’s final outing as 007, it’s 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 extraordinary awareness of what needs to happen in the film,” Malek says. “And what needs to happen on the day to facilitate that overall structure.
“He’s very good at really tethering one moment to the next and making sure that we get these essential moments to create suspense and tension throughout the film. He knows what needs to happen for this particular Bond 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 good. You can see that day in and day out, minute to minute, with Daniel’s work ethic and his commitment. He’s really often the first guy there and the last guy to leave.”
“The more you load the film with interesting characters, the more interesting the film is”: Daniel Craig in No Time to Die. Credit: Eon
Funnily enough, Malek once thought that he might be in line to play Bond.
“When I first met Barbara Broccoli, it was after a film called Short Term 12,” he says. “We were in Los Angeles and she asked me to lunch – I couldn’t believe it – and said, ’We’re going to work together one day, Rami.’
“I thought OK, it was never going to be on a Bond film. But there was a moment when I was heading home after that lunch meeting thinking, ‘Could I ever be Bond? Ah, it’ll never happen.’
“But, 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 but you never know. With smart audiences, as we have who come to the cinema, we’re able to reinvent Bond. So, why couldn’t we move on from a villain to actually playing the hero? That would be another dream come true.”
So, how hard will Craig be to replace given how indelible he has been as 007?
“Now that you say that, maybe I don’t want that role,” Malek says. “He is my Bond, that’s for sure. And for so many millions of people around the world, he’s their Bond as well.
“He’s brought this emotional connectivity to this character that I’ve not felt for Bond before. Watching Casino Royale, I said, ‘Wow, I’m actually caring about this character in a way I haven’t in previous iterations.’
“And in No Time To Die, I think your heart will break for that character. That’s a testament to the way Daniel has been able to enrich the character of a spy who at one point Ian Fleming called a blunt instrument. Well, with Daniel Craig, he is a blunt instrument no more.”
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Email the writer at gmaddox@smh.com.au and follow him on Twitter at @gmaddox.