The Sunday Times talks James Bond with Daniel Craig
08-Oct-2006 • Casino Royale
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Bond bombshell
As the new 007, he has some tough acts to follow. Daniel Craig â macho, gruff and said to be a fantastic kisser â believes heâs more than up to the assignment. But does he really know what heâs taken on? John-Paul Flintoff reports
The new James Bond arrives for lunch at the Dorchester Hotel. Iâd half-expected the screeching of brakes, or gunshots, but Daniel Craig, 38, arrives no more noisily than any other diner. He wears jeans, a black polo shirt that sets off his reddish tan and muscle-bound torso, and a thunderous expression that, combined with his unearthly, pale blue eyes, provides an air of authentic menace.
If I were one of Bondâs enemies, I would lay a revolver on the table beside me. But Iâm not, and Craig is not Bond. So I place on the table instead a well-thumbed copy of A Number, an intellectually challenging play by Caryl Churchill, in which Craig starred with Michael Gambon at Londonâs Royal Court theatre in 2002, and for which he was nominated for an Evening Standard award. As soon as Craig sees it, his clenched jaws relax. He rolls his eyes, as if to say: âImagine bringing that old thing!â
Itâs a little contrived, but I had to do something. Craig hates publicity, and by the time we meet he has already endured almost a week of back-to-back junkets. I hate to think how many times he has been asked which Bond girl is his favourite; and which of his predecessors was the best James Bond. (He rolls his eyes. âTheyâre all great,â he answers to both.) What I want to find out is if he regrets taking on the part, not only because many fans deem him unsuitable, but also because it may put an end to the kind of acting assignments â including plays at the Royal Court â he has done previously. He looks briefly at the menu and says heâs not really hungry. (âBeen eating junk all morningâ.) So we push the menus aside.
His wariness around journalists is not altogether surprising. In recent months, Craigâs private life has ceased to be private. A long-time friendship with Jude Law is apparently in ruins after he reportedly had a fling with Lawâs girlfriend Sienna Miller. (Both have denied it.) Of similar interest are a reported fling, some time ago, with Kate Moss; a seven-year relationship with the German-born actress Heike Makatsch, who appeared in Love, Actually; and his four-year marriage in the early 1990s to another actress, Fiona Loudon, with whom he has a teenage daughter.
Read the full interview here at The Sunday Times
Thanks to `Onlooker` for the alert.
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