Thanks to his 15 year stint as James Bond, Daniel Craig is one of the world’s biggest stars. The Chester-born actor made his debut as 007 in 2006’s ‘Casino Royale’ and retired from the role after his fifth outing – 2021’s ‘No Time to Die’.
Daniel, who grew up on the Wirral and whose interest in acting was inspired by childhood trips to the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool city centre, reinvented the role of Ian Fleming’s spy. He brought more depth and a harder edge to the character, making him more like the figure in Fleming’s novels.
Since hanging up his tuxedo, the 56-year-old has appeared in ‘Knives Out’ sequel ‘Glass Onion’ and Luca Guadagnino drama ‘Queer’, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe – but missed out on Oscar and Bafta nods.
In the film, Daniel plays William Lee – an American expat who falls for a much younger man. He has received plenty of praise for his performance, with the Oscar and Bafta snubs coming as a surprise to many.
Speaking to the Sunday Times last month to promote the film, Daniel said: “I couldn’t have done this while doing Bond. It would look reactionary, like I was showing my range.”
He added: “Early on with Bond I thought I had to do other work, but I didn’t. I was becoming a star, whatever that means, and people wanted me in their films. Incredible.
“Most actors are out of work for large chunks so you take your job offers — but they left me empty. Then, bottom line, I got paid. I was so exhausted at the end of a Bond it would take me six months to recover emotionally. I always had the attitude that life must come first and, when work came first for a while, it strung me out.”
Daniel has frequently spoken about the toll that playing 007 took on him – famously saying he would rather “slash my wrists” than play the role again after filming 2015’s ‘Spectre’. However, he has since clarified he meant that he could not face filming another Bond adventure right away and needed some time to rest.
He also wasn’t very keen on taking the role. The ECHO last week looked at how he couldn’t ‘believe his own arrogance’ after taking a deliberately casual and uninterested approach to early casting meetings, worried that it would dominate his career.
Despite the bumps in the road, he became an incredibly successful James Bond and in a recent interview with film critic Mark Kermode, Daniel was asked if he enjoyed playing the role. He said: “I did. I loved every second of it. I mean, some of it was tough and weird and strange and emotionally kind of difficult for everybody, including my family. The fame is weird.”
The aforementioned Sunday Times interview also revealed “three words that changed Daniel’s life” and set him on the road to fame. As a student at drama school in the 1980s, Daniel attended a lecture delivered by theatre director Declan Donnellan, during which he wrote down a note to himself: “Don’t get bitter.”
Explaining how that changed his life, he told the newspaper: “I can be jealous. To this day I think, ‘Oh, why has he got that part?’
“But you have to own failure because you can’t control what other people think. You just have to hope and get on with it because, clearly, I could not have planned for my life. This just happened — and it is still happening? F***ing amazing!”