With one film still left to go before he hangs up the keys to his Aston Martin for good, Daniel Craig has already established himself as one of — if not the — best James Bonds ever. But what was it that convinced the actor to take on the high-pressure role to begin with a decade-and-a-half ago?
In a new interview with Empire magazine, Craig reveals that it was a line in the Casino Royale script (one that didn’t actually make it into the movie as written) that sold him on taking on the role of the iconic superspy and putting his own unique spin on it. “One of the biggest reasons I did Casino Royale is the line, ‘A vodka martini, please.’ ‘Shaken or stirred?’ My reply was written in the script as, ‘Do I look like I give a f—k?’ And that’s it. That’s the reason I did it,” Craig said. He went on to explain that Bond’s reaction to his usual drink order (in which the f-word was replaced with “damn” in the actual film) signified that the movie was taking risks and reinventing the character, meaning he wouldn’t just be doing the same ‘ol Bond audiences had seen before.
“What I could not do, and what I refused to do, was repeat what had gone before,” Craig said. “What was the f—king point? So I’d rather have just [made the one movie] and (if it had failed) gone, ‘Okay, swing and a miss. There you go. Tried my best.'”
Obviously, Casino Royale was far from a failure. The film was a massive hit the reinvigorated the franchise and now frequently finds itself at or near the top of most critics’ lists of the best Bond films. Craig’s saga will soon end with No Time to Die, and we have to say that we do give a damn that he’s leaving the role, as we’re really going to miss his brutish, vulnerable, and refreshing take on Bond.
No Time to Die hits theaters on April 10.
