Movies

‘That’s it. I don’t want to do anything anymore

December 11, 2022

Daniel Craig reconsiders his decision to separate from James Bond. (Photo: Mike Marsland/Getty Images for Omega)

Warning: this post contains spoilers for no time to die and the fate of James Bond.

After five Bond films, Daniel Craig has officially surrendered his license to kill. But the British actor says he sealed his character’s fate just like his first outing as 007, in 2006 Casino Royalehit the movie screens.

“I was moving away from the Berlin premiere of Casino Royale with [producer] Barbara Broccoli,” says the 54-year-old actor at Sunday time in a new interview. “I had really thought I would do a Bond movie and then it would be over. But by then we knew we had a hit on our hands. I realized the enormity of it, so I said to Barbara: ‘How many more? Three? Four? She said, ‘Four!’ I said, ‘Okay. So can I kill him? She said yes.'”

And that’s exactly what happened with Craig’s fifth and final turn as James Bond, no time to die. Released last year after an 18-month delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 25th film in the franchise ended with the secret agent’s death, having chosen to sacrifice himself for the sake of his life. family.

“I said, ‘That’s it. I don’t want to do anything anymore,'” Craig says of his latest film. Even so, he wanted to give the spy a noble death, tasking Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who worked on the film’s script, with crafting an ending that showed Bond’s humanity. Infected by programmed nanobots to kill his lover and their young daughter, Bond stays on an island he knows will soon be hit by missiles.

“The real tragedy is when you have absolutely no choice,” notes Craig. “We had to find a way to ensure that his death had no choice. He was the happiest Bond had ever been because he had found exactly what he was looking for. Like everyone else on Earth, he was just looking for love.

Bond’s death also presented an opportunity for the beloved franchise – even if the studio wasn’t quite ready to embrace it.

“If we kill Bond, we can start over,” says Craig. “I think Barbara thought so too. But, bless them, the studio, MGM, was, like, ‘What are you talking about? Are you crazy?’ There was resistance, so we had to do it in secret, really.

While it remains to be seen when and how the Bond series will be refreshed, Craig – now starring in Glass Onion: A Mystery at Daggers Drawn — seems happy with his ability to shake up the 60-year-old franchise.

“I came with guns and everyone got mad,” he said of the controversy surrounding his casting, which he admitted to being “bothered” with in an interview with Yahoo. Entertainment last year. “‘His ears are sticking out! He’s blond! Blue eyes!’ I’m far from the tall, dark stranger that Fleming wrote, but I thought, “We’ve got to make it new. We can’t just say, ‘Hey, audience, here’s the same old stuff we always have. done.’

“I know that sounds extremely arrogant,” he continues. “But it was a creative break. I felt like Bond was big and strong enough to handle just about anything. If I had ended up doing more [Bond], I would have really pushed him. But Bond can handle it! He is not fragile. It’s sturdy. Sean Connery personified this character in a way that will never go away, so I thought, “What am I doing to him?”