Craig’s insights into what it’s really like to play James Bond
Being James Bond Apple TV+
O★★★★★ n the last night of shooting his final James Bond movie, No Time to Die, Daniel Craig bursts into tears. Extraordinarily, he is crying not out of joy – nobody comes across as more fed up with Daniel Craig’s Bond than Daniel Craig – but sadness. It’s one of the most striking moments in Being James Bond, a short and bittersweet Apple TV + documentary.
At 45 minutes, the film takes care not to outstay its welcome. And the framing is curious. It consists of Craig and Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson shooting the breeze over out-takes and old footage from Craig’s five Bond forays.
In other words, with all the billions at its disposal, Apple has decided to serve up what could easily be mistaken for an old DVD commentary reel.
“That f---ing line,” is Craig’s take on “The name’s Bond, James Bond”, and he paints the fame Bond bestowed as hell on Earth. “I was mentally under siege,” Craig says. “There are people in trees outside your house. I didn’t go out. I would lock myself in and close the curtains. I didn’t know how to handle it. I still don’t.” The big headline to come out of the film is that MGM Pictures tried to veto the sexually charged exchange between Bond and Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva in Skyfall (2012). The “offending” dialogue begins with Bardem stroking Bond’s leg.
“You’re trying to remember your training now,” he purrs. “What’s the regulation to cover this? Well, first time for everything I guess.” To which Craig replies: “What makes you think this is my first time?”
“I remember we were told to cut that line by the studio,” says Broccoli. “And we said ‘No, no, no’. We resisted.”
Craig has been Bond for so long it’s hard to imagine he was ever a controversial successor to Pierce Brosnan. So it’s jolting to be reminded of the widespread disgruntlement at the casting of a “Blond Bond”. But one person who hasn’t forgotten is Craig. “I went on online and read everything,” he recalls. “It was really, really tough.” He wasn’t all that keen on the part in the first place and reveals he said “yes” only after being bowled over by the script to Casino Royale (2006).
Craig’s refreshing honesty extends to 2008’s Quantum of Solace, shot without a finished script (owing to the Hollywood writers’ strike) and which he likens to the “difficult second album”.
He also explains that he spent much of the making of Spectre (2015) in agony, having snapped a knee ligament. The injury forced Craig to wear a knee brace and push through the pain barrier. Hence his outburst at the end of filming that he’d rather “slash his wrists” than play Bond again.
“I don’t want to go on about how hard Spectre was,” he says. “It was tough... I genuinely felt at the end of that film... ‘maybe I’m just too old’.”
Broccoli persuaded Craig to return for one final rodeo. And at the end of his tenure, he sounds vaguely sentimental about saying goodbye to Bond.
“It’s tough to walk away from. It’s not about money and fame. I’ve got it. I’m incredibly lucky. It’s given me more in my life than I could wish for.”
It’s a fitting conclusion to Being James Bond, which portrays Craig as a sincere and well-intentioned actor who gave everything to the role but isn’t devastated to be moving on to the next chapter. Being James Bond is on Apple TV+ now