Daniel Craig

Daniel Wroughton Craig (born March 2, 1968) is an English actor. In 1991, he trained at the National Youth Theatre and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before beginning his career on stage. His film debut was The Power of One in 1992. Other early appearances were in A Kid in King Arthur's Court in 1995 and Elizabeth in 1998, as well as in the historical war drama television series Sharpe's Eagle in 1993 and the action-adventure drama series Zorro. Born the year after the release of You Only Live Twice, Craig is the first Bond actor to be born after the start of the film series, also making him the first Bond actor to be born after Ian Fleming died. Much media attention has also been given to him for being the "Blondest" official James Bond actor.

Daniel Craig, who waited tables as a struggling teenage actor with the National Youth Theatre, went on to star as James Bond in Casino Royale in 2006, Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre 2015.

Trivia

Lived in London with German actress Heike Makatsch (2001-2004).

Has a daughter, Ella Craig born in 1992, who lives with his ex-wife Fiona Loudon in London.

He was nominated for a 2002 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in "A Number at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs".

One of the many actors considered to take over James Bond from Pierce Brosnan. He officially accepted the role in October year 2005.

He was the last actor considered for the role of Rorschach in the movie adaptation of Alan Moore's comic-book miniseries, Watchmen (2009).

Voted #7 in Elle (France) magazine's "15 Sexiest Men" poll. [in June 2007]

Quit smoking before making Casino Royale (2006).

Ranked #29 in the 2008 Telegraph's list "the 100 most powerful people in British culture".

While incognito at a cinema in the United States, he was once asked if anyone had ever told him that he looked like Daniel Craig. He answered "no" and walked away.

After filming for Casino Royale (2006) had wrapped and before production for Quantum of Solace (2008) began, he had his body insured for $9.5 million.

He was the 2nd English actor to play James Bond in the film series. The first was Roger Moore, the 3rd Bond.


Personal Quotes

[TimeOut London interview, 7 October 2015, answering "Do you ever look back and think: How the hell did I end up playing James Bond?"] I know, it’s ludicrous, it’s ridiculous. When I first got approached, I just thought: You’ve made a mistake. I don’t know, it’s still crazy.

[TimeOut London interview, 7 October 2015, answering "Can you imagine doing another Bond movie?"] Now? I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists. No, not at the moment. Not at all. That’s fine. I’m over it at the moment. We’re done. All I want to do is move on.

People always say, "That stuff you did in Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998) must have been difficult . . . but I say, "No, it wasn't really; that was some of the easier stuff to do", because it was always clear and made a lot of sense. It's when things are unclear and when you don't know what you're doing--that's when things are difficult.

As far as I'm concerned, I want to be nowhere else. It's difficult in film because everybody wants to make a safe bet with roles. But if you are going to do stuff then you should be getting strong reactions. I don't want audiences to be going, 'Yeah, that's all right.'

[TimeOut London interview, 7 October 2015, answering "Do you want to move on from Bond for good?"] I haven’t given it any thought. For at least a year or two, I just don’t want to think about it. I don’t know what the next step is. I’ve no idea. Not because I’m trying to be cagey. Who the fuck knows? At the moment, we’ve done it. I’m not in discussion with anybody about anything. If I did another Bond movie, it would only be for the money.

It's something else. I'm speechless. I've just got to step up to the plate and deal with it. I had a confidence about it but then that's because of the people around me who made me feel good about it. I knew positively on Monday. I was in Baltimore when I took the call. My first reaction was I needed a drink.

I hate handguns. Handguns are used to shoot people and as long as they are around, people will shoot each other. That's a simple fact. I've seen a bullet wound and it was a mess. It was on a shoot and it scared me. Bullets have a nasty habit of finding their target and that's what's scary about them.

[TimeOut London interview, 7 October 2015, answering "Playing James Bond is a lot about how you look – the clothes, the walk, the fitness. Do you ever get fed up with all that?"] It’s a drag. The best acting is when you’re not concerned about the surface. And Bond is the opposite of that. You have to be bothered about how you’re looking. It’s a struggle. I know that how Bond wears a suit and walks into a room is important. But as an actor I don’t want to give a fuck about what I look like! So I have to play with both things. In a way that works, as that’s Bond: he looks good and he doesn’t give a fuck what you think he looks like!

I kind of feel that if you look at the track record of most Bonds - I mean Sean Connery obviously defined the part, and even he struggled for a while to get rid of the mantle. That's the pitfall and it could happen to me. I've been working so hard, for however long it is I've been doing this, to try and stick to doing stuff I totally believe in and that would be wiped out. I thought, God, this is all right: I'm doing what I want to do. And that was a huge weight off my shoulders.

I just wanted to see him [James Bond] make a few mistakes. I want to make the audience believe that it's all going to go wrong and then when it goes right it's much more exciting. Every day you pick up an injury and you're battered and bruised. If you're not physically fit then it's difficult to get through. I'm a Bond fan. If I go and see a Bond movie there are certain things I think should be in it. And they're there. We've got them in spades. Nobody knows more than I do how important this is, and it's my job to get it right.

[on the backlash from Bond fans] I didn't expect this backlash. You take it in, you can't help it. I've been trying to give 110% since the beginning, but after all the fuss, maybe I started giving 115%.

I hope it's going to be liberating. I'm not putting any negative spin on this because to be typecast as James Bond is a very high-class problem for an actor, and I'm certainly going to try to get as much out of it as I can. Of course I am always going to think about whether it is going to limit what I do. I plan for it not to, but if it does, I'll approach that problem when it comes.

I wanted to do as much of the action work as I could, so that the audience can see it's me and it's real. I feel like I became a sportsman of sorts, and that meant acquiring injuries and carrying on and bashing through to the next level of pain. Although the stunt team did fantastic work to make sure that everything was as safe as possible, if you don't get bruised playing Bond, you're not doing it properly. I had black eyes, I had cuts, I was bruised, I had muscle strains, and I took a lot of painkillers. But it was part of the job. As much as I was hurt, the stuntmen were in much more pain.

I was affected by it - of course I was. What bothered me was that I was being criticized before I had done the work. I wasn't going to get into an argument with these people, so my only response was, 'See the movie and then you have the right to criticize, but first see what I am trying to do.' It strengthened my resolve. I was hurt by it, but it just made me try harder. The pressure was there. I know a lot of people feel very passionate about the Bond movies, but so do I, so I just got on with it. What I tried to achieve was just making a movie people will want to go and see, and I think we have made a great movie. One of the things I was criticized for was that I looked like a bad guy, but I was happy with that because I think true good guys have to step into the dark side to do their job. I wanted people to question Bond's morals and his judgment.

Sean Connery set and defined the character. He did something extraordinary with that role. He was bad, sexy, animalistic and stylish, and it is because of him I am here today. I wanted Sean Connery's approval and he sent me messages of support, which meant a lot to me.

You talk to people in the movie business who have been doing this 40 years and they all say the difference is that, back in the day, you could go and have a drink in the bar, get drunk, fall over, have a good time, relax, whatever, and no one would know about it. But now everyone's got a camera. Not that all I want to do is get drunk in a bar, but that's an example. So you can't live a normal life anymore. Because it will become public knowledge that you've whatever-gotten drunk in a bar or skinny-dipped on a beach or something. Things that normal people do occasionally. And in a way that's kind of-I've got to be high-class. I've done a lot of things in my life. But you have to think in that way. Which is sad, because I like bars.

[on how the character of James Bond has matured over time] What I'm doing is not what Pierce was doing, and Pierce wasn't doing what Roger Moore was doing, or what Sean was doing, or what Timothy [Dalton] was doing. Things have changed. It's just kind of the ride of it. Pierce used to say that it's like being responsible for a small country. It's kind of like you have to look after it diplomatically. I kind of get that, but I can't really say that's my deal. I'm not going to be the poster boy for this. Although I am the poster boy.

[on product placement and the controversy over Skyfall (2012) featuring of Heineken and not a martini] Now, product placement, whichever way you look at it, whether you like it or you think it's disgusting, or whatever, it's what it is. . . . Heineken gave us a ton of money for there to be Heineken in a shot in a bar. So, how easy is that? Just to say, O.K., there's Heineken. It's there-it's in the back of the shot. Without them, the movie couldn't get sold, so that all got kind of blown up. 'Bond's new drink is a Heineken.' He likes a lot of drinks-Heineken, champagne; it's all in there. I'll drink a beer in the shot, I'm happy to, but I'm not going to do an 'Ahhhhh' [pantomiming an actor looking refreshed]. And I would say this because they're paying, but they're kind of respectful about it. They don't want to screw the movie up.

[on the evolution of James Bond in his movies] Sexual politics has come a long way since '62, unless you want us slapping ladies on the ass and telling them to go and wait in the other room because the men are talking and that kind of stuff. Bond remains a little bit of a chauvinist, which I think is good, because it means if you stick strong women in front of him, then shit happens. It doesn't take the sexiness out of it. The fact is he could die in any minute, and therefore he might as well jump into bed with somebody.

[on how he looks upon his icon shot of Casino Royale (2006) where he walks out of the water] I don't look at it, weeping, going "Wasn't I beautiful!" Everything like that has been a voyage of discovery. I was aware of what was needed to be Bond. I'm not the coolest human being. But playing James Bond, you have to be cool. That was a big accident, that particular shot. I was pretending to swim in shallow water and then I stood up and walked out of the water! I was pretending to be cool by swimming, I thought it looked stupid and stood up and I walked off - and that was the shot!

[on the character of James Bond] Let's not forget that he's actually a misogynist. A lot of women are drawn to him chiefly because he embodies a certain kind of danger and never sticks around for too long.

[on whether he would return for a fifth Bond movie]As far as I'm concerned, I've got the best job in the world. I'll keep doing it as long as I still get a kick out of it.[October 2016]

[on why he said he'd rather slash his wrists than play James Bond again]It was the day after filming ended on Spectre. I'd been away from home for a year.[October 2016]

[on whether or not continue to play James Bond] I were to stop doing it, I would miss it terribly.[October 2016]

[on whether to continue to portraying James Bond after Spectre]I'd rather break this glass and slash my wrists. No, not at the moment. Not at all. That's fine. I'm over it at the moment. We're done. All I want to do is move on.

Salary

• Casino Royale (2006) - $3,200,000
• Quantum of Solace (2008) - $7,200,000
• Cowboys & Aliens (2011) - $6,000,000
• Dream House (2011) -$5,000,000
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - $6,000,000
• Skyfall (2012) - $17,000,000 plus bonuses for certain box-office milestones