NTTD

[Daniel_Craig]

Thanks for the pictures and videos, ladies.

Fortunately, I saw the original livestream from the world premiere. It's a shame that no "simple" fans were allowed on the red carpet. No autographs. Must have been stupid for Daniel too. He feels comfortable with the fans when he is allowed to write autographs. Can't be because of Covid-19. But letting 4,000 people run over the red carpet and then "squeezing" them into the hall without any distance is a bit of a mistake. OK. They also had to pay to get in there. Nobody had masks on either. I could see it well in the HQ photos on Getty Images. There are some things I don't understand. Only wonders about it.

For these "special" conditions, this premiere was a success. The most important thing for me is that I can see the film in the cinema on Friday. Yeah After a year out of cinema !! The last film in the cinema was "Tenet" in the IMAX in Portugal!

@Jana
I have a link to the original stream:
https://de-de.facebook.com/JamesBond007 ... 379253060/

You really couldn't do the RTL crap! Constant talk from Ludewig and this Kretschnar. So much mental garbage that these two have separated. That doesn't go on a cow skin! German television in London has made a name for itself with these two. Crap!

To enter that hall even if you had a ticket you should have a certificate cor vaccine, that you were sick of it or PCR 24 h. before....

Of course, the 3G rule was applied. It's the same with us in Germany. But we don't use the full capacity of a hall, cinema, etc., but a safety distance between the rows of seats or free seats.
OK. This is england. At the European Championships, Wembley Station was filled with fans down to the last seat. There was probably no 3G in use. How could they have controlled 60,000 people too?

I already notice. Covid-19. Now one wonders about the things that were normal "before".

I'm happy for those who were able to attend the premiere in London.

For everyone who was not in the RAH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug_GRk_GJqQ

[Daniel_Craig]

@D_C,
you are so right with that cr*p RTL.
IThank you for the link for the org. livestream. I will watch it and enjoy it .

You´re welcome, Jana. Enjoy it.



For everyone who was not in the RAH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug_GRk_GJqQ

[videnovasan]

This one is great
https://youtu.be/dP-IlGZBH1E

[Dunda]

This one is great
https://youtu.be/dP-IlGZBH1E

This is really awesome. I've been waiting a long time for him doing that sort of thing, answering random question.

And he wore the lower half of the pink suit

[archangel007]

Interesting read with some new photos!
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/movi ... o-die.html

[archangel007]

Here is the whole interview:

Though he had no movie to promote, Craig went on to host that weekend’s episode of “Saturday Night Live,” which featured a blithely silly sketch about how the coronavirus might affect the making of soap operas, and Craig’s introduction of the musical guest, the Weeknd, delivered with unexpected relish. The next day he and his wife, Rachel Weisz, and their family left New York and the country plunged headlong into the pandemic.

Any sense of frivolity, free of consequences, has been in short supply in the months that followed. Even as the trajectory of the pandemic remains uncertain and the box office oscillates from week to week, MGM — which delayed the film twice more — now has committed to releasing “No Time to Die” on Oct. 8.

A scene from “No Time to Die,” which was delayed a few times because of the pandemic. “I’m so desperate for people just to see it and hopefully for them to like it,” the actor said.
It has been an awkward, drawn-out send-off for the 53-year-old Craig, who, from the moment he was chosen to succeed Pierce Brosnan as 007, was never an obvious or elegant fit for the character. His looks were too rugged; his film résumé was too thin; his hair was too blond.

As Craig told me in that initial interview, he assumed he’d been invited to audition as cannon fodder, to make it easier to choose someone else for the part. “I was just amongst the mix — someone to dismiss,” he said, adding that, at best, he thought he’d get a dispensable villain’s role: “Here you go, have a baddie.”

Instead, Craig parlayed his debut, “Casino Royale,” into the quick 2008 follow-up, “Quantum of Solace,” and the more epic-length sequels “Skyfall” (2012) and “Spectre” (2015). His Bond movies, which have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, have grown increasingly ambitious in scale and vertiginous in running time.

Despite indications that he had soured on the franchise — when Time Out asked if he could imagine making another entry, he said, “I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrist” — and the intermittent injuries he has suffered on it, Craig said that he wanted one more go at his sullen, stolid Bond to complete the story that “Casino Royale” began.


“There’s a consistency which I wanted to put into it,” he told me then, adding with a laugh: “Maybe I’ll be remembered as the Grumpy Bond. I don’t know. That’s just my Bond and I have to face up to it, that has been my Bond. But I’m quite satisfied with that.”

“I don’t show myself to the world as much as maybe people would like, but that’s my choice,” Craig said. “It’s got me probably into trouble.”Credit...
But making “No Time to Die,” even in the heady before-times of 2018 and 2019, was no easy feat for Craig, who was a co-producer on it and “Spectre.” Danny Boyle accepted the director’s post, then left, citing creative differences; Cary Joji Fukunaga directed the film instead. Craig injured his ankle during shooting, requiring minor surgery.

Then the actor — whose tenure as Bond, elongated by the pandemic, has outlasted that of any of his predecessors — had to wait 18 months to unveil the 2-hour, 43-minute film that would finally release him from his obligations to Her Majesty’s Secret Service. In the interim he has already filmed a sequel to Rian Johnson’s 2019 crime caper “Knives Out,” reprising his role as Benoit Blanc, the gentleman sleuth whose cultivated whimsy seems like a commentary on everything Craig couldn’t do as James Bond.

When we talked again by phone in September, Craig was both his usual guarded self and a shade more relaxed. The knowledge that “No Time to Die” was now coming to fruition had given him the freedom to reflect on what his Bond experience meant to him — up to a point. When asked to comment on developments that could affect the future of the Bond franchise — like, say, Amazon’s plans to purchase MGM — his brevity spoke volumes.


And of course the tight-lipped star had one more secret up his sleeve: It was announced on Wednesday that Craig is starring in a new Broadway production of “Macbeth,” playing the power-hungry thane of the title alongside Ruth Negga as Lady Macbeth. (This production, directed by Sam Gold, is expected to begin previews at the Lyceum Theater on March 29 and open on April 28.)

As Craig would say on more than one occasion in our conversations, he is just an actor and not to be confused with his soon-to-be ex-alter ego.

“All I really wanted to do was make a living out of it,” he said of acting. “I wanted not to have to wait on tables, which I’d been doing since I was 16. I figured that if I could do it and pay the rent, then I was a success.”

“Believe me, I’m completely a mere mortal,” he said.

Craig spoke further about the long wait for “No Time to Die” and shared — for now — his final reflections on James Bond. These are edited excerpts from two further conversations.


What has the last year and a half been like for you? How are things, whatever that means to you?

They’re as good as they can be. I’m incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful family and also to have had a place out of the city where we could go and get away from kind of the craziness. We left the city the 8th of March. The night before, I did “S.N.L.,” which was truly surreal. It’s been a tough year for everybody and we’ve had things go down which have not been so pleasant, but so it goes.

He hasn’t had any involvement in the selection of his 007 successor: “Whoever does it, good luck to them.”
He hasn’t had any involvement in the selection of his 007 successor: “Whoever does it, good luck to them.” Credit...Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times
Is it humbling to play these characters who are defined by being capable and resourceful and then to have a real-life experience that reminds you we’re all at the mercy of these larger forces?

Well, I don’t feel like that anyway. I feel like a normal human being most of the time. I don’t feel any connection to the characters I play. I mean at all. They’re just that. So many things have been put into perspective. It’s difficult not to just look at the world in a different way. I’m sure it’s the same for everybody.

There is a video clip making the rounds from a speech when you addressed your colleagues and crew at the end of filming “No Time to Die.” You teared up at the end, and it was very comforting to me to see you show emotion — that you could be vulnerable that way.

I don’t show myself to the world as much as maybe people would like, but that’s my choice. It’s got me probably into trouble and has made people make up their own minds about me. But I’m an incredibly emotional human being. I’m an actor. I mean, that’s what I do for a living. And the clip you’re talking about is the end of 15 years of my life that I’ve put everything I can into. I would be some kind of sociopath not to get a little bit choked up at the end of that. Hopefully, I’m no sociopath.

If things had proceeded as planned a year and a half ago, you would have gotten to enjoy a slightly glitzier victory lap. Does this feel muted in any way?

Put Covid at the end of every sentence. I’m very sanguine about all of this. I’m just happy we’ve been able to get to this stage because God knows, a year and a half ago, none of this even made any sense or seemed even remotely possible. I’m just incredibly happy that we got to a point where we can get audiences to go and see it. I’m so desperate for people just to see it and hopefully for them to like it.

How many other endeavors take up 15 years of someone’s life? Usually you get, like, a doctorate or a professorship named after you at the end of them.

That’s true. [Laughs.] Neither of which I have, by a long way. But very nice of you if you want to put it in those terms.

What will you miss about Bond?

I’ll miss the massive team effort that it takes. It’s nearly five years since we started this project, as frustrating and sort of anxiety-making as that can be. Sometimes it feels like it’s not going to happen, but it’s an incredibly creative process and I will miss that. I’ve got other projects I do, and they’ll reward me, but there’s nothing quite like a Bond movie.

Anything in particular about the character himself?

I’ve done him. I’ve given all I can. He’s as there as he’ll ever be for me. I mean, who knows? I don’t have a clear answer to that.

Craig’s tenure as Bond started with “Casino Royale” (2006).Credit...Jay Maidment/MGM and Columbia Pictures
Image
His second outing came in the 2008 “Quantum of Solace,” co-starring Olga Kurylenko.
His second outing came in the 2008 “Quantum of Solace,” co-starring Olga Kurylenko.Credit...Karen Ballard/MGM and Columbia Pictures


We haven’t seen Craig as Bond since “Spectre” (2015).Credit...Jonathan Olley/MGM and Columbia Pictures
Image

The franchise grew increasingly ambitious, as in “Skyfall” (2012).Credit...Francois Duhamel/MGM and Columbia Pictures
You’re a parent. Do you think Bond will mean something to your children and their generation?

If you understand children like that, I would say that you should have a professorship. I don’t understand kids that well. They’re an enigma to me, and if they do get something out of these movies in the future, then that’s their journey, not mine.

Do you have any involvement in the search for whoever your successor will be?

None whatsoever.

You prefer it that way, or it’s just how things are?

It’s really nothing to do with me. Whoever does it, good luck to them. I hope they have just as great a time as I’ve had and they carry on making interesting, relevant movies.

This past spring, Amazon said that it would purchase the MGM studio, which makes the Bond films, in part so that it can have a stake in the future of the franchise. Does that —

You know, good luck? I’m very pleased with the people at MGM. I’ve worked with them for a long time now. I’m not trying to be political. It’s just got nothing to do with me.

As you were saying goodbye to Bond, you found success with the role of Benoit Blanc, and “Knives Out” is becoming a franchise of its own. Do you feel at all like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather: Part III” — “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”?

Listen, write that if you want to. [Laughs.] I mean, how lucky am I? I’ve got the chance to work with Rian Johnson on something that’s incredibly fulfilling and fun.


Opposite Ana de Armas in “Knives Out,” from 2019. A sequel is in the works.Credit...Claire Folger/Lionsgate
There was a playful elusiveness and a comfort that Benoit Blanc had about him, almost in deliberate contrast to Bond’s rigidity. Did you feel like that role gave a much longer leash to play on?

It’s just the nature of the part, though. Bond is what he is, and Benoit is very different. Not to be blunt, but as an actor, that’s my job, play parts that are different. I got the script for that, and I was like, really? It’s amazing, as it was when I got “Casino Royale.”

As we are speaking, it’s a Friday afternoon, and I am about to see my social media feeds populated with a video of you declaring it to be the weekend. Has the popularity of this gotten back to you in any way?

No, what is that?

There is a clip of you from that “Saturday Night Live” you hosted, introducing the Weeknd with almost a sense of relief. People just like to post that clip as a way of ushering in the weekend.

They do? It’s amazing. I don’t know what that is, but thank you. That’s lovely. I suppose I’d have to have social media to know what that was all about.


You’re returning to Broadway next year to star in “Macbeth.” What got you interested in that particular play?

It’s the only other Shakespeare play I’ve read. [Laughs.] No, it’s always been one of my favorites. It’s very difficult. It’s fast-paced and not particularly long. There’s an opportunity to do something. Broadway has taken such a kicking, like every other industry, and to do something spectacular and magical and weird, to try to get that on Broadway and help out and give it as much of a boost as possible — I know we can do a wonderful production. There will be plenty of things going on, on Broadway next year, and I wanted to join in.

How does one prepare to play Macbeth?

You learn the lines. We’ve got lots and lots of ideas, all of which are just in the conversation stage right now. We workshop the play for two weeks in November and then we’ll start rehearsals in the new year. Hopefully in those two weeks we’ll nail some of these ideas down. And then you just go from there. Thank God we’ve got Sam Gold and Ruth.

There is also a new film version of “Macbeth,” starring Denzel Washington, that will be released at the end of this year. Do you feel any competition with that project?

God forbid I was ever in competition with Denzel Washington. Jesus. I don’t consider myself worthy. That doesn’t come into it. They’re going to be very different, clearly, but I don’t worry about those sorts of things. The more, the better.

You’ve previously played Iago for Sam Gold in “Othello,” you’ve done the brooding thing —

How do you know what I’m going to do? I’ll be far from brooding.

You’ll do a jovial Macbeth?

I genuinely don’t know. I don’t make those kinds of decisions early on about these things. I didn’t play Iago brooding at all. Quite the opposite. Both characters are massively complex and intelligent. Macbeth is one of those characters who’s reported on, at first, as being this warrior who can slice a person from their nut sack to their throat. But he’s closer to Hamlet than anything because he’s so inward-looking. I’m just looking forward to getting my teeth into that.

Would you next maybe like to play Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” just to change the pace?

I know what you’re saying, but I don’t think of them in that way. Those comedies are just as hard, just as complicated to get right and to do well — to be not just funny but thoughtful and deep.

How about Falstaff?

[Sighs.] Get me a fat suit.

[videnovasan]

This one is great
https://youtu.be/dP-IlGZBH1E

This is really awesome. I've been waiting a long time for him doing that sort of thing, answering random question.

And he wore the lower half of the pink suit

Obviously pink is the male trend for this season...there was a pic of Gyllenhall in a baby link sweater recently ... Fashion what can I say....

[Germangirl]

Thanks fir the inteciew. Interesting read.

[Dunda]

Great interview and great pics, thank you!

[archangel007]

From the guardian:

George Lazenby
Actor
Daniel, we both made our 007 debuts in films (unusually for the series) based closely on Ian Fleming’s source novels. What do you think about Fleming’s work and the challenge for an actor of imparting some genuine human feeling and emotion in the material? What do you think of my attempt in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service?

It’s one of the best movies, because it had a love story. And what is life without love? Fleming was very ambiguous about Bond. He hated him sometimes, I think. Barbara [Broccoli, Bond producer] said today that Fleming called him “a shadow”. I kind of lifted from Fleming Bond’s ambiguity, conflict and passions. You could take 1952 passions or you could just transpose them to modern passions. And that’s what I did. There’s no point taking 1952 passions because they don’t exist any more – thankfully, a lot of them. So I thought: he’s a passionate man. He loves, he cares, he’s honourable, he’s incorruptible, and I love that he’s a complex character.

duffdawg
Which is the Fleming Bond novel that influenced your Bond the most?

It’s probably Live and Let Die, because I read it first – it was my first one at the cinema and there were lots of differences. He goes to the quartermaster in the book and pulls out his gun and what are basically speed pills. And you think: “Oh, right, wow, OK: a gun and some speed pills, that’s a safe combination.” But it does sort of indicate that he’s twisted. There’s a kind of dark underbelly that we can’t show in the movies but I want to be there.

Anne Reid
Actor
Is there any role you regretted playing? Any job you wish you hadn’t done?

Not with you, Anne, that’s for sure. But yes. I don’t want to say which movie, because that’s not fair. I used to walk into Blockbuster – which shows you how old it is – and it would be on the shelves, maybe even not the DVD but the VHS. I’d grab it and throw it under the counter. I know it was only a small protest – it was only my Blockbuster – but it was some way of my never seeing that movie again. But I’ve never really desperately regretted anything. I think once you commit to something you go: this is it, it is what it is, good or bad.

KayReed
Which was your favourite of your Bond films, and which is your favourite of the franchise over all?

This one and Goldfinger.


Toni Collette
Actor
What is your favourite art form? By which I mean: which speaks most immediately to your soul?


Gosh. I love all art forms. I love a good show. I love being taken somewhere and I love being fooled. I love to cry, I love to laugh. When art does that – and it does, very often, do that to me – I’m moved. It can be music, it can be anything; it can be a commercial on the TV if it’s the right one. There was a great British Gas one a couple of years ago that was just this family having a bath. When I watched that I was like: “Oh my God, it’s so moving.” Maybe because I missed England.

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in Knives Out (2019)
Southern man … Craig as Benoit Blanc in Knives Out (2019). Photograph: Lionsgate/Allstar
Anbaric
Of these scenes, which is your favourite:
1. Being tied to a chair and cruelly tortured by Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale?
2. Being tied to a chair and gently tortured by Javier Bardem in Skyfall?
3. Being tied to a chair and painfully tortured by Christoph Waltz in Spectre?

A mix of 1 and 2. [Laughs] There’s some fun in having a rope smack you round the nether regions. And Javier, you know …

Jamie Lee Curtis.
Actor
Obviously you have now been freed from the bonds of Bond. As you deliciously showed what you can do with that freedom with your Benoit, what is a bigger jump for you to take: a musical, or mime?

Perhaps both! In some sort of weird musical-mime show with Jamie. I don’t know. I’m very fortunate to have been given Benoit Blanc [in Knives Out] to play with. I can’t quite believe I’m James Bond; I can’t quite believe I’m Benoit Blanc, but it’s true.

cmbg68
Who is your favourite actor/role model for acting and why?

Michael Shannon’s one of my favourite actors. Mark Ruffalo’s one of my favourite actors. Isabelle Huppert is one of my favourite actors. I have so many. I don’t have role models because I just admire them. I can’t aspire to be them; they’re just fantastic, amazing people. My favourite Huppert? The movie where she cuts herself [The Piano Teacher]. It’s just phenomenal, but it’s so scary. It’s like: something’s gonna happen, something’s gonna happen, something’s gonna happen, oh my God, it’s happening!

Kathy Burke
Actor
You have a lovely body, Mr Craig. I assume you spend a big part of your day at the gym and have a very healthy eating regime. Do you ever get the chance to have a gorgeously greasy egg or is there really just no time to fry?

Yes, for God’s sake, I do eat greasy fried eggs at least once a week. For sure. They’re my favourite on toast with Worcestershire sauce.


At the end of Our Friends in the North (the 1996 TV series in which Craig co-starred), your character walked across the Tyne Bridge. What’s your favourite bridge that you’ve walked across?

I walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at least once a week. It still gives me a thrill to look at Manhattan. I still go: “Oh my God, I live in New York

Naomie Harris
Actor
Free of all restraints (the only constraint being that you can no longer act), and imagining that you can acquire at will whatever skill you want, where in the world would you choose to live? And what would you choose to be doing with your life?



I’d like to be at sea. I’m terrified of the ocean. It’s a fearful place, but also just unimaginably beautiful as well. If I had a choice I would do something where you had to go and be challenged by it. A lifeboatman? I always had a fantasy of taking a boat across the Atlantic, but I didn’t really see myself on cruise liners. You can actually do it on cargo ships, I think, as a captain’s guest. That is very appealing. To have no light pollution, underneath a canopy of stars, would be spectacular.

LivesInThePictures
Is there a particular skill that you have had to learn for a role that has stayed with you and has had a positive impact on your life?

It’s not a skill, but I’ve got over my fear of heights.


David Morrissey
Actor
What is your favourite Liverpool football club memory?

I couldn’t be there but it sort of has to be Istanbul [the 2005 Uefa Champions League final] when we came back from three-nil down against Milan. I watched the first half at home in Hoylake, which is where I grew up, which was very, very depressing and we all went: “Fuck this, let’s go to the pub.” It was packed with very sad people. And then we scored and the pub erupted and then it was just like 100 people staring at a small television. And then tears and beers going everywhere: mayhem. And this was usually quite a quiet pub.

Samantha Morton
Actor
You have always made such brave/incredible choices. From early TV to film – The Mother, Love Is the Devil – to groundbreaking theatre. What informs your choices? Has this process ever changed?

I was very lucky to have a couple of mentors, including Mary Selway, a casting director who has sadly died. I wanted to make interesting, groundbreaking movies, but I had no idea how to. I was pushed in gently by people like Mary. The Mother and Love Is the Devil were two movies she helped me make decisions about.

Oiauwe
Was Bond ever a role you fancied playing when you were in drama school?

No. It was a role I fancied playing when I was about 10. But then I wanted to be Spider-Man, Columbo, Kojak and Starsky and Hutch.

Livesinthepictures
Is there a particular role/type of part that you would like to play in the future that you have not already had the chance to play?

I sort of take things as they come. I don’t think about what I want to play. I like letting life happen to me and getting surprised. Rian Johnson is a prime example – he sent me Benoit Blanc and I could not see that coming.

Rian Johnson
Director
Here’s the only question I want to ask anyone who came up doing theatre: what is the worst experience you’ve ever had while performing on stage? Give us a real horror story.


Being bombarded with Opal Fruits [AKA Starbursts] at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House when I must have been around 16 or 17. We’d do three afternoon matinees a week and it was just school buses of kids who were not into seeing Romeo and Juliet. They had bags of Opal Fruits and they’d just throw them constantly on to the stage. Eventually I just got so weary of it I started eating them, which got a round of applause.

ThreeGirlRumba
Which former Bond do you think would host the best dinner party?

George Lazenby must be up there.

Welshman
We all know what Bond’s favourite alcoholic drink is. What’s yours?

I’d like a vodka and soda with fresh lime right now. But tomorrow I might like a whisky. I don’t drink as much as I used to, but when I do drink I like to keep it clean.

Finn Wittrock
Actor
Having seen you do Shakespeare up close [the two of them worked on a production of Othello together; Craig played Iago, Wittrock was Cassio], it doesn’t surprise me that you have taken on some roles that require some bigger transformations (Knives Out and Logan Lucky come to mind). But I think it may be a surprise for the general public. Does drawing a contrast to Bond play into your decision-making when taking on a role?

When I first started Bond I did try to contrast my roles. I thought I had to go and do something completely different. I stopped doing that because I realised I had to do what I’d always done, which is wait for the good stuff to arrive. I’ve never really gone searching for work; ordinarily, when I’ve waited and had patience, good things have turned up.

Whoeveryouare
In what ways have the other actors who have played James Bond informed your approach to playing him?

Not at all, because the way they played it was the way they played it, and they’re each individually brilliant. I can’t do an impression to save my life, so I wasn’t even trying to emulate them. All I wanted to do was put my stamp on it and make it the best thing I could.


Judi Dench
Actor
Have you missed me?

Yes. Yes, Judi Dench, I miss you. Every day I miss you, Judi Dench. What, specifically? The light in your eyes.

cakesxandxale
Have you kept any mementoes from the sets you have been on? If so, which is your favourite?

This is the question I get asked the most; everybody clearly thinks I’m a kleptomaniac. I have a watch that was given to me by Barbara Broccoli and Michael [G Wilson, her fellow producer]. I wore it in Casino Royale in the crane-jumping sequence and it still has red dust around it from the Bahamas.

Jason Isaacs
Actor
You are as famous and successful as it gets. So … what next? More movies? Producing? Directing? Or something else? Others have leveraged their brands into business empires, activism or even elected office. What’s your plan?


Go home, put my feet up, have a cup of tea. I don’t have plans. I like acting. Producing is a natural extension; I helped produce these movies. Directing always seems to me too much like hard work. I’m not a great spokesman, but I really try to actively involve myself with good causes. Business empires … it’s not my thing. And elected office: you must be fucking joking.

DVR001
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

To my younger self when I started Bond? No, because I think I was naive and open-minded and that would have been the advice to my younger self: be naive and open-minded.


Elliot Daly
Rugby player
What was your training plan for Casino Royale?

It was not great, Elliot. We did our best but I just wanted to get big and look like I’d just come out of special forces, which I think I got right. I wish I’d spent more time running. I kind of glocked myself up a bit. It was heavy weights.

LivesInThePictures
What is the project that you have been most proud of in your career and why?

This one. It’s been a long time coming. Covid aside, it’s been a struggle to get the movie made – as it always is. But I think we had a great story and we got together an amazing cast and an incredible crew.

Kim Basinger
Actor
My favourite role of yours was Perry Smith in Infamous. Infamous or Knives?

Mark Ruffalo was supposed to play Perry Smith and he recommended me; I’m such a fan of Mark’s, so the fact he did that was so moving for me. So, yes, I remember Infamous with a lot of fondness. I love playing Benoit Blanc; but they’re slightly different.

Yohdur
Have you read much of Ted Hughes’s poetry, or Sylvia Plath’s? If so, do you have any favourite poems?

I have read lots of both of them. Daddy, by Plath.

Naomi Watts
Actor
What’s left on the bucket list?

I don’t have a bucket list. Maybe that’s just because I don’t want to be disappointed. There are things that I want to do that I feel will trigger other things in life, but I don’t have specifics. It’s sort of about the people you meet. I feel like that’s kind of the ambition in life: the more people I can interact with, or be with family – that usually sends up some pretty amazing times.

Shivermetimbersnow
What are the top three things you have learned (about yourself, the movie business or anything else) being James Bond?

It’s a team effort. Having to work with all sorts of different people from all sorts of parts of the world takes a lot of give-and-take. You’ve got to allow people to be creative and to get on with their job. I drive things on set and I have learned to do that because I was given the opportunity to do so. You need a lot of energy to do a Bond shoot – a six-to-eight month shoot – and you’ve got to be as excited each day as the day you started.

Gemma Arterton
Actor
Which living director would you like to work with who you have not yet had the chance to?

I always fantasised about running off and working with Peter Brook. That’s probably not gonna happen now. But all the way through my younger years I just had this fantasy of going round the world with him and learning different languages.

Thaigh
Have you ever taken some elements of James Bond’s character into a real life situation?

No, thank goodness.

Emmet Walsh
Actor
In the film Knives Out, did you start out thinking you’d create such a quirky character or did he develop as you explored him?

He was on the page. Rian Johnson sent me the script; I giggled all the way through it. It said in the stage direction: “A lilting southern accent.” Rian came to see me and I sort of pointed to it on the page and he went: “Yes”, and I went: “OK!” That’s kind of where it came from.

JonRoper25
Which member of the Liverpool squad would make a good Bond and why?

All of them.

Jonathan Joseph
Rugby player
How many takes did you have to do for that famous James Bond coming out of the sea scene?

One, actually. It was kind of an accident. The beach was about 3ft all the way out, like a sandbank. It didn’t drop off, so I wasn’t swimming into the ocean. I think I just walked into shot and then sort of got up.

Scudman
What has been the most enjoyable event/occasion related to your promotional duties as James Bond?

I was in Switzerland for Casino Royale. I was very naive and green and was trying to be open-minded. I knew people had loved the movie in London. The next stage was: does the movie make any money? I didn’t even consider that. I’d gone to bed and I’d got a call from Barbara who was with Amy Pascal, who was running Sony at the time, and they said: “Get down here now”, and I thought I’d lost my job. And they just went: “The figures are in and they’re through the roof.” That was just mind-blowing for me – a success I didn’t even consider.

YoloSwagg
What scenes do you remember that were completed for Bond but ultimately left on the cutting room floor?

I never remember the scenes we shot; I stopped doing that a long time ago. You can get into this thing as an actor of wondering why someone has cut your part; it’s to make the movie better, unless the director hates you. Scenes that didn’t make it don’t exist to me any more.

BabyStrange
I love the film Love Is the Devil; it’s an underrated British masterpiece, with a great cast. What was that like to make, and would you like to do more ‘arthouse’ (for want of a better word) films in the future?

Oh, that’s so kind. I’ll make anything, arthouse or not. That was a coming together of so many wonderful things – John Maybury, Derek [Jacobi], John Mathieson [the director of photographer], all this talent, no money, John firing on all cylinders and Baillie Walsh, his partner, who was helping him write the script and injecting things into it. Students on set painting huge Francis Bacon-like pictures because we weren’t allowed to use any of the real pictures. All of the young British artists of the time. Extraordinary. Just a way of making movies that I would definitely do again; an amazing experience.


John Maybury
Director
Did your Bond experiences change your life in ways you didn’t expect? And are you still an enthusiastic gamer?

It did change me, in more ways than I could ever expect. I had a vision of what might happen but it’s impossible to imagine. When you’re an out-of-work actor, gaming is a way of passing the time. I had a Sega Megadrive on the TV in my flat and hours wasted on that. But I don’t have time any more to play video games, which is probably just as well because we’ve got kids and there’s always something to do.

Leobatch
Which Bond villain would you most like to have played?

Mads’s part: Le Chiffre.

SwindonNick
When filming the various Bond films, did you actually get to enjoy many of those exotic locations or was it all work, work, work?

Yes, it was all work, work, work, but what you get to do is get to know people very quickly because you get to work with them very intensely, and that makes the experience very special.

Sagarmantha1953
What’s it like to be brutally shot to death in the bath by supposedly the nicest man in the movie business, Tom Hanks?

Remarkably pleasant.

Ana de Armas
Actor
What will you miss most about playing James Bond and being part of these films?


It’s this massive collaborative effort. I came up through theatre and was taught very early on that you’ve got to look after each other. And never more so than on a Bond set, because Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson’s attitude is: it’s one big family. They gave me a chance to be creatively involved. And to be creatively involved in a Bond movie, I will miss.


Every Bond actor leaves a legacy of interpretation of the character. How did you approach such a well-storied character and are you satisfied your efforts will endure for the generations to follow?

Fucking hell! It’s kind of up to other people to decide that, I think, but thank you for the question.

No Time to Die is in cinemas now

[videnovasan]

These days is so much stuff. I can't see everything.

[videnovasan]

These days is so much stuff. I can't see everything. But saw the movie yesterday and he is everything in it....Enjoy the movie when you can. Avoid YouTube now some idiots recorded the finale and put it online......Why there are people to spoil everything for the others is beyond me....

[SilverLining]

This one is great
https://youtu.be/dP-IlGZBH1E

So cool, he's so sweet!
GQ always manage to bring out the best in him.

[Jana66]

This one is great
https://youtu.be/dP-IlGZBH1E

This is really awesome. I've been waiting a long time for him doing that sort of thing, answering random question.

And he wore the lower half of the pink suit

...I have to agree . This is fantastic.
And, extra note: Did you notice, how is Daniel throwing away the cards with the questions ? IMO, this is such a Daniel gesture, I never will forget. He uses the same gestures as Bond.

[videnovasan]

This one is great
https://youtu.be/dP-IlGZBH1E

This is really awesome. I've been waiting a long time for him doing that sort of thing, answering random question.

And he wore the lower half of the pink suit

...I have to agree . This is fantastic.
And, extra note: Did you notice, how is Daniel throwing away the cards with the questions ? IMO, this is such a Daniel gesture, I never will forget. He uses the same gestures as Bond.

Actually James Bond uses the gestures of Daniel IMO. And I think all this is awesome. You can really see how honest and down to earth he is.i really liked his answer about the injuries or something like that when he points his heart.... He is just a great guy.