Craig renews his licence to thrill

Daniel Craig returns for another slice of James Bond, this time in the thriller, Quantum of Solace (QOS).

Early reviews of the film have already confirmed the obvious: If there was any Bond that could overshadow Sean Connery's signature style, then Craig's your man.

This is the same actor who was written-off well before 2006's Casino Royale even made it to the big screen. Critics gleefully ripped apart his acting credentials, while fans started online petitions to stop the release of the film.

Yet, the opening weekend box office collections of $40.8million (Dh149m) were proof enough that Craig would soon be reprising the role of the superspy in another film.

Betrayed by Vesper (Eva Green), the woman he loved in Casino Royale, 007 is determined to uncover the truth. Bond's new sidekick is the beautiful Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a woman who has her own vendetta. Emirates Business caught up with Craig to get the lowdown on the making of QOS.


I didn't know you were injured. Why the sling?

It's nothing. It's just an affectation.

So what happened?

I've had a tear in my shoulder and I think that two Bond movies have just aggravated it. During this one it started aching badly halfway through it. Plus, there was the potential actor's strike, which meant we had a deadline. If we didn't finish we were screwed and so I went to see a surgeon.

He said, 'You're fine. You might damage it more, but you'll be fine. Come and see me when you've got the rest done'. So about six weeks ago I had surgery. So I'm well on the way, but I've got to keep it in a sling for a while.

Is Bond chipping away at you piece by piece?

No [laughs].

Did you do a lot more physically in this film than the last one?

Yeah, we did. We learned a huge amount when we did Casino Royale. Certainly I did and the stunt team that I worked with did about how much I can do and what the limit was. But I think that we're getting better too at making it look like it's me. The guys that I work with, I have about five guys who work closely with me who've got incredible fighting skills, all look quite similar to me.

I try to get as fit as they are because they're seriously fit and then I get my face in there. If I can get my face in there at that key moment and not sort of pull the audience out of it that's all I want. I don't want the audience to be watching an action sequence and then suddenly for them to go, 'Oh, that's not him'. There are moments, if you play it really slowly that you'll be able to find, but hopefully those are few.

The stunts in QOS seem more dangerous than Royale, especially the fire scene in the end.

That's interesting.

Did that scare you?

No, not scare. Trepidation, but generally it's about getting it right because I only want to do it once. So if you're standing on a roof and you have to jump over there I think, 'I don't want to do this more than once if I can help it'... We rehearsed things so much, like with the fire sequence we went to a testing facility with suits on and got as close as we could to get used to the heat. And there you're covered in this flame retardant that's all over your body. At some points I have plastic hands on because I'm smashing things and there are guys with fire extinguishers ready to use.

When you saw Bond as a kid and then became him, was there something from those days you wanted to preserve or change?

Not from when I was a child. Marc [Forster, director] and I had a long conversation when he came on to do this, many long conversations, which we're still having. We're big fans of the early Bonds, but also of the movies that they spawned in the '60s. They had a direct effect on movies all over.

One of the biggest things that the early Bond movies did was to go on location. That was unusual at the time. If they were Hollywood movies usually they shot on a back lot and created sets, but in the case of Bond, if he had to go Japan, he was in Japan. That's what we wanted to make happen in this movie, that you were transported to these places and also trying to add some of the style that they did back then... I think it's a stylised Bond.

The BBC review felt that QOS was the second film in a possible trilogy.

Personally, I think that we've wrapped up all the loose ends that

I wanted to wrap up in the Vesper story. This film also solidifies the relationships, which are so important with Felix Leiter and with M and where their places are in the world.

Now we've got a very stable Bond world and we can just do whatever we want.

To my mind there is no trilogy because we've got to do something different now. We need a submarine base, lets be honest. A small one. But we need to explore. There's Moneypenny. There's Q. There are all the other characters that we could conceivably bring in.

How was working with director Marc Forster different from the last one with Martin Campbell?

He's a lover of films, a cine-phile through and through. You look at how complex his films are. To me that strikes as a very brave person.

How was it working with Olga Kurylenko, who's the first Bond girl that 007 hasn't had an affair with?

She's great. I was involved with the casting process and she came in and just had this kind of quiet – I don't know – toughness about her and this secret that she's carrying with her. She did a great job. I think that her story ties into it nicely; and they do kiss.

What's your relationship with Judi Dench?

It's very good. It's a joy to work with her. I'm a selfish actor. If I can work with really good actors my job is sliced in half. At the very least sliced in half. She comes on and commands and can literally speak the phone book and I'd listen to it.

When someone hurts you, can you let it go? Bond couldn't.
He can. I think he can. I think the mistake in this movie is that people think he's on a vendetta, when he's not. I kind of keep this whole thing about the title Quantum of Solace, it's actually what he's looking for. He just does a job. He's not out to take revenge. He might be a little angrier than he was in the first one, but that's the point – a chance to do the guy, the one guy who is responsible. Not the bosses, but the actual guy that twisted the love of his life.

But would you get even?

No. I don't believe in it.

Were you more confident with this Bond film after the first one was a success?

This will sound strange, but I got over that a long time ago. All of that sort of pressure of doing it was something that happened in the Bahamas about three weeks into the shooting of Casino Royale. We had a good film and a good team. And I thought, 'There's nothing else that we can do to make this better'. By the time that we got to the premiere in London people were like, 'Don't you feel vindicated?' And I said, 'I don't feel anything like that. I feel we've got a great movie'. With QOS, all the same pressures were there, but in a different way... It's a $200m (Dh734m) movie. I don't know how you could do that without some pressure.

Bond takes up so much of your time. Are you able to do other things?

I've done three movies since I did the last one. I've got a little movie called Flashbacks of a Fool that came out a few weeks ago quietly because it's a small movie and then Defiance, out at the end of the year.

Is Defiance getting an Oscar run this year?

It's getting a quick and limited release or something like that on December 31.

What's your role like and how was it working with Ed Zwick [director]?

Great. Ed presented me the script. It's set in Byelorussia during WW II about four brothers who organised a resistance against the invading German army and against the local population who are siding with them. There's this forest around Byelorussia and Lithuania that goes on for miles and is still impenetrable today. The brothers went in and created community for survivors. I'm one of the brothers.

For the next Bond, is there a place that you would like to go to?

The beach for 90 minutes of the movie and about 10 minutes of action. I can look out and explosions can be happening everywhere, while I sip my drink. (Famous Features)



FACT BOX

The eagerly awaited Quantum of Solace, starring British actor Daniel Craig, has already raced to top in the first week of its release in the UK. But how well do you know superspy James Bond? Here's a guide:

Who's played Bond?

—Daniel Craig: Two films, with Casino Royale, the 21st in the series, and now Quantum of Solace.

—Sean Connery: Six films, as well as the unofficial Never Say Never Again.

—George Lazenby, 69 starred in the one Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service

—Roger Moore: Starred in seven films, with a 13-year stint as the spy

—Timothy Dalton: Two films, The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill

—Pierce Brosnan: Four films, and the only 007 to marry a Bond girl, Cassandra Harris, who starred in For Your Eyes Only


The box office records:

The 21 official Bond films have amassed billions of dollars. Casino Royale, grossed $594 million (Dh2.18billion). According to Forbes, Bond films have generated $11.5bn at the box office taking into account inflation, beginning with 1962's Dr. No through to the Casino Royale remake. If books, videogames and ephemera are included, the value of the franchise jumps to $13.5bn. (Reuters)

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