It turns out that playing James Bond isn’t all it’s cracked up to be–or at least according to Daniel Craig! In an explosive new documentary “Being James Bond,” the 53-year-old actor makes some pretty shocking revelations about how his life changed when he took on the iconic role ahead of his fifth and final turn in the role “No Time To Die” which hits theaters next month. To say that our jaws dropped over his revelations would be an understatement!
Craig didn’t hold back in the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary, revealing in the anticipated doc that he was “physically and mentally under siege,” after he found out he would be taking over from Pierce Brosnan as the famous spy. Although he was already an established actor, having previously starred in “Road to Perdition” in 2002, and “Layer Cake” in 2004, Craig said that nothing prepared him for the fame and media attention he would receive when he made his debut as the famous spy in the 2006 film, “Casino Royale.”
“My personal life was affected by being that famous all of a sudden,” Craig said in the documentary. “I used to lock myself in and close the curtains, I was in cloud cuckoo land. I was physically and mentally under siege.” Wow–we’ve never heard this version of the story before.
Interestingly, he said he found an ally in none other than Hugh Jackman, who he credited with helping him cope with the newfound fame and media scrutiny. “I didn’t like the newfound level of fame. It was Hugh Jackman who helped me to come to terms with it and appreciate it,” Craig added, before mentioning that he already felt he had achieved a lot before landing the 007 role, and wasn’t sure he wanted the added fame that came with it.
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He also noted that his predecessors such as Brosnan and Roger Moore had previous roles that were marginally similar to Bond, whereas his previous films were, to quote Craig himself, “weird arty movies” that were worlds away from the British spy. He also confessed that he was initially going to turn down the role, but it was the powerful script that made him change his mind. Can you imagine “Royale” with anyone other actor?! Because we sure can’t!
“As far as I was concerned I was already more successful than I would ever be as an actor — I did not have a cool persona,” he continued. “Pierce had done ‘Remington Steele,’ Roger Moore had done ‘The Saint’—they had done these parts where people had gone, ‘That’s James Bond’. I had done weird arty movies. It was a harder sell. And I didn’t really want to do it, because I thought I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I was going to get the script, read it, and say, ‘Thanks but no’. But little did I know, it was ‘Casino Royale’. The story was solid, the script was solid.”
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Craig has become the longest-serving James Bond in the franchise, with a very impressive five films under his belt, including this year's "No Time To Die." We're a little surprised that he agreed to the fifth and final film, as he was very vocal about his desire to quit after the fourth. After encountering a lot of problems with "Spectre"; including breaking his leg quite early into filming – the actor famously said "I would rather slash my wrists" than play Bond again. Yikes!
"I do not want to go on about how hard Spectre was, but I needed a break. I needed to switch off," he recalled, before confessing that it was producer Barbara Broccoli who convinced him to do the final film. "I genuinely felt psychologically at the end of that film too old. Barbara drives a hard bargain. I don't think I was ever going to get away with leaving after Spectre."
Despite his reservations, Craig finished off by saying that he is "incredibly proud" of his work in the James Bond franchise. "My tenure is what it is, but it is only part of something bigger. I look back at the films and am incredibly proud of every one of them.
"Leaving this role is not easy," he concluded. "I can be as brazen and blasé about it as I like, but it is still tough to walk away from. And it is not about money and fame. I am incredibly fortunate to have been able to do this. But I think it is OK now [to leave the role], and it's because we did this movie."
Wow – we didn’t expect him to get this real, but we're so grateful that he did!
"Being James Bond" is available for streaming now and "No Time To Die" hits theaters October 8.
