Craig hurt by trolls when first cast as Bond

Daniel Craig was hurt by negative comments on social media when he was first cast as James Bond. The ‘No Time To Die’ actor - who has ended his tenure as 007 in the latest installment of the blockbuster franchise read some of the unfavorable posts about himself online when he was confirmed to star in 2006’s ‘Casino Royale’, but doesn’t regret doing so despite finding it a “painful” read. The 53-year-old star told SiriusXM’s ‘The Jess Cagle Podcast with Julie Cunningham’: “I’m glad I did it. It was painful to do but I kind of read everything, and just thought, ‘Well, there’s not much I could do about that.” The ‘Layer Cake’ star also admitted he struggled to get to grips with having a “public persona”, even though he chased fame. He said: “The whole concept of fame, and you know, being public and having a public persona and all of these things were just so alien to me. I didn’t understand it. “I suppose I acted because I wanted to be famous but I acted because I loved acting.” Reflecting on the extent of fame it brought him, he continued: “With Bond, I knew it was going to explode. “I wasn’t completely naive, I knew that it would change things.” However, the ‘Spectre’ star was not ready for the sheer volume of it and insisted there is no way to prepare for superstardom. The ‘Knives Out’ star recently recalled feeling “physically and mentally under siege” when he shot to a new level of fame in the movies. He said: “I used to lock myself in and close the curtains, I was in cloud cuckoo land. I was physically and mentally under siege.” And Daniel added how fellow Hollywood star Hugh Jackman, also 53 - who he worked with on Broadway in the 2009 run of ‘Steady Rain’ - “helped me to come to terms with it and appreciate it.”