MOVIE NEWS – Daniel Craig seems to have mixed feelings about his time as James Bond. The English actor is famously tired of speculation about the character, such as who will play him next or whether there will ever be a “gay James Bond.” Recently, Craig opened up about the sudden fame he experienced after his debut as the iconic spy in Casino Royale in 2006.
Speaking to The New Yorker, Daniel Craig described the fame associated with playing James Bond as a “f*cking disaster.” When asked how he handled the surge of attention, the actor jokingly said, “I dived into a really big, deep, dark hole. Went to Mexico City, did a lot of drugs. If only.” In reality, Craig dealt with it in a far less sensational way: “I locked myself away and didn’t come out of my house and I felt paranoid. I mean, with good reason.”
As with any major role, fans were quick to criticize Craig’s casting before Casino Royale premiered. However, the actor has since become many people’s favorite 007. “Before the first movie, it was, like, ‘He’s really terrible.’ After the first movie, it was, like, ‘He’s really good.’ And then the interest in you is so overwhelming. You feel like you’ll never go out again,” he shared.
Daniel Craig Felt “Free” After Leaving James Bond
Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond came in 2021’s ironically titled No Time to Die. The film provided a natural conclusion to his tenure, paving the way for a new actor to inherit the role. Since then, Craig has reinvented himself with iconic performances, most notably as detective Benoit Blanc in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series. He currently stars in Luca Guadagnino’s drama Queer, a role generating Oscar buzz. Surprisingly, Craig and Guadagnino are also teaming up again for Sgt. Rock, a project set in the rebooted DC Universe.
Craig’s post-Bond career has been marked by variety and creative freedom. “I was suddenly kind of free,” he reflected on leaving the role. While he tried to take on other projects between Bond films, such as David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the divisive Cowboys & Aliens, the workload was draining. He admitted, “It’s two years out of your life, and you go, ‘Oh, go and do another project to freshen myself up.’ And all I found was I couldn’t put any energy into it. So with varying degrees of success, I kind of did these movies that were, like, O.K.”
Craig briefly stepped away from acting in 2017 to focus on his personal life and family. However, when Rian Johnson approached him with an original murder mystery, he couldn’t resist. Recalling his first reaction to the Knives Out script, Craig said: “I laughed out loud when I read it, and I was, like, ‘Does he really want me to do it?’ And he went, ‘Yeah, I want you to do it.’ I said, ‘You want me to do a Southern accent?’ And he went, ‘Yep.'”
Source: MovieWeb
