Daniel Craig on the Psychology of 007
“I don’t judge him. It’s not the job of an actor to judge your character.”
It’s never an easy feat following up with a sequel to the most successful British film ever. That’s the case with Daniel Craig, who starred as the indomitable James Bond in Skyfall, which became the 12th highest grossing film ever, and was the first film to break £100 million GBP at the British box office. With the world gearing up for what may be Craig’s last appearance as the secret agent, Esquire had the chance to interview him shortly after the last day of filming for Spectre. As insightful an interview as Craig’s stony persona will allow, the A-list star discusses the specter of Skyfall‘s success, explores the profoundly lonely existence of 007, and what life will be like after Bond. Read the piece in its entirety here, and anticipate Spectre to release in cinemas worldwide on November 6.
Unless there’s something he hasn’t been telling us, Daniel Craig is an actor, not a spy. He is married, to another actor, Rachel Weisz, and he has a grown-up daughter from an earlier relationship. He is 47 years old. He lives quietly, and as privately as you can when you are an A-list movie star and so is your wife. He is often to be found with his head in a book. He likes a few beers now and then. He looks good in a suit but is more often to be found wearing jeans and a T-shirt. He does not carry a gun. If he did, he’d have to put on his glasses to fire it accurately.
“I’m not James Bond,” he says, not for the first time. “I’m not particularly brave, I’m not particularly cool-headed. I have the fantasy that I would be good in a certain type of situation, like all of us, and I put those hopes into [playing] him.” But Craig also likes to think that his own non-Bondness adds something to his interpretation of 007. “There are bits when he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing, and I like that.”
