Daniel Craig almost turned down James Bond
The 007 actor has been reminiscing about how he initially "didn’t really want to do" Bond.
When Daniel Craig steps down as James Bond after the release of the upcoming No Time To Die, he'll go down in the record books as the longest-serving 007 of all time.
But it could have been very different – and the star has recently been reminiscing about how he didn't always want the job, and almost turned down the role after reading the script for Casino Royale.
"Pierce [Brosnan] had done Remington Steele, Roger Moore had done The Saint — they had done these parts where people had gone, 'That is James Bond'," he explained in Apple TV documentary Being James Bond.
"I had done weird arty movies. It was a harder sell. And I didn’t really want to do it, because I thought I wouldn’t know what to do with it."
"I was going to get the script, read it, and say, ‘Thanks but no’," he added. "But little did I know, it was Casino Royale. The story was solid, the script was solid."
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Meanwhile, producer Barbara Broccoli explained that she and her co-producer Michael G. Wilson were desperate to get their man even when he was showing little interest in the role.
"Michael and I really wanted him, but the biggest problem was that he didn’t want to do it," she explained. "He came into the office, and I said to Michael afterwards, ‘He wants to do it’.
"We were determined to have him. We kept freaking the studio out as they kept trying to get us to meet other people."
Of course, Craig did take on the role eventually and the rest is history – with the actor going on to star in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre and now No Time To Die.
Speculation as to who might take over the role following Craig's departure is rife – with Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page and Outlander's Sam Heughan among the names to be mentioned.
No Time To Die will be released in the UK on 30th September 2021. If you’re looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Movies hub.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
