Click to play videoDaniel Craig returns as the world's favourite spy James Bond in Quantum of Solace, which opens in India on November 7.
CNN-IBN’s Entertainment Editor Rajeev Masand met him in London and asked him about James Bond.
Rajeev Masand: Daniel Craig, I know you don’t like to make a big deal about the nicks and bruises that come with playing Bond. But that hand in the sling is a giveaway. Are these like war wounds then?
Daniel Craig: I don’t look like it that way. The injuries I get are small really. I have had cuts and bruises—stitches on my face. It goes with the territory. The annoying thing is I cut my face open and we had to stop filming. Everybody gets into panic, because they think it is going to show up. Luckily, I went to see a fantastic plastic surgeon, who stitched it up and I was back at work the next day.
I ripped my shoulder and I have had surgery done on it. But I don’t get a kick out of getting injuries. I really don’t—there is no masochistic thing going on here.
Rajeev Masand: The Bond films have tread a very similar path. Does this make you raise the bar higher each time?
Daniel Craig: We are not in competition with anybody. This is a James Bond movie but we are really in competition with ourselves.
Rajeev Masand: This time Quantum of Solace has some pretty fantastic action and stunt scenes. There are car chases; motorboat chase; you fall from an aeroplane; a foot chase over building roof. You did a lot of stunts this time yourself. Is that important for you to do it yourself?
Daniel Craig: I do think it is important, to make a film a whole and to have a continuity throughout the film. I think if you separate the stunts from the story line by making them a separate issue by hiding faces and all, I think that drags the audience out of the story. I want the audience to be enthralled through the whole thing. I want them to be pulled in emotionally.
That’s is the part of our job but believe it is me a lot of the time when the really difficult stuff goes down it is actually the stuntman—and they know what they are doing. We just hide it really well.
Rajeev Masand: Which was the most challenging one in this film?
Daniel Craig: The free fall was really hard. It didn’t take a long time to shoot, but it was technically very difficult because we had to learn how to do it and then sort of act. It was tricky.
Rajeev Masand: Going into Quantum, did you really feel more confident than perhaps while you were making Casino Royale?
Daniel Craig: There were different pressures this time. The fact we made a successful Casino Royale was a big surprise because of the financial success it made—the fact that so many people liked it. But it added pressure, because we now had to repeat it; we had to find a way of equalling that. But there are good pressures to have—those are causes that you need in life.
Rajeev Masand: So what are the strangest places that you have been recognised at since playing Bond?
Daniel Craig: Filming just off the Panama Canal. There was a boat moored. We drove past and an American couple with drinks in their hands said: ‘Oh, it is you. That has made our evening.’ It was a nice occasion but we were in the middle of nowhere.
Rajeev Masand: The Bond films have tread a very similar path. Is that usually a shot in the arm for you guys? Or do you raise the bar each time?
Daniel Craig: We are not in competition with anybody. This is a James Bond movie and we are only competition with ourselves. There is over 40 years of movies to look at and certainly some of those movies are the best movies around. The Bourne movies are fantastic but we are not in competition with them.
Rajeev Masand: So if Jason Bourne and James Bond got into a fight, who would win?
Daniel Craig: James Bond will hire someone else to have the fight. And bet on the outcome.
Rajeev Masand: Some of the actors who have played Bond before have not really been able to have a career outside playing Bond. That is not true in your case. Is it important for you to not let Bond be the only thing you are remembered for?
Daniel Craig: Well if that is the case then that is the case. If that happens then it is a very high-class problem to have. I love my job; I love acting and I love searching out for good scripts and things to do. I am always going to do that, but if I get typecast as James Bond then it is okay.
Rajeev Masand: Why do you think Bond is such a timeless career?
Daniel Craig: It is difficult to say—they did it right in the first place. Sean Connery was great casting and they made great movies. The impetus of that has lasted a long time.
You can play around with him (James Bond). He is a very simple character but at the same time you can embellish it. As long you spend the money and put it on the screen and go around the world then it becomes an event. Each movie becomes an event.
Rajeev Masand: Thank you so much for talking to us.
Daniel Craig: Thank you very much, it was a pleasure.
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