Daniel Craig talks James Bond, Monica Bellucci in ‘Spectre’ and role models
Most fans feel Daniel Craig is the best actor to play James Bond since Sean Connery, but the two also share a disdain for playing the popular spy with Connery famously stating “I have always hated that damned James Bond. I’d like to kill him.” Just as Spectre opens in theaters, Craig expresses the dark sides of Bond.
After much thought, “Nothing,” is all that Craig offers when asked by The Red Bulletin what he really thinks about the most iconic action hero of the past century.
“But 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,” Craig then said.
Craig says that any progress is due to improved female characters sharing the screen with 007, not the other way around, speaking particularly about Spectre co-star Monica Bellucci:
Bond has actually become a bit more chivalrous in the most recent films, hasn’t he?
That’s because we’ve surrounded him with very strong women who have no problem putting him in his place.
And this time you’ve gone one better, showing 007 succumbing to the charms of an older woman.
I think you mean the charms of a woman his own age. We’re talking about Monica Bellucci, for heaven’s sake. When someone like that wants to be a Bond girl, you just count yourself lucky!
This awareness of the role he’s playing may very well be the reason he’s so good at playing it. In the rest of the interview, Craig is eloquent and thoughtful, especially when he talks about the difference between a hero and a role model:
Don’t confuse role models with heroes. My heroes are very personal to me. Both my grandfathers fought in the Second World War—one was in Germany, the other with the Royal Air Force in Siberia. But let’s not harp on about that. They hated talking about what was a terrible time. We should respect that.
Spectre opens on November 6, 2015.