For Daniel Craig, 2015’s Spectre was the last time he thought he’d be playing James Bond.
“I thought I probably was physically not capable of doing another,” 53-year-old Craig, who suffered a torn meniscus during filming, told Total Film. “For me, it was very cut and dried that I wasn’t coming back.”
However, two or so years later, the opportunity to explore a different side of Bond drew the English actor back in for one last hoorah.
“It’s interesting to explore his emotions, because he’s a cut-off character. He doesn’t feel like other people, because he’s a killer,” he explained. “On Casino [Royale], he loses the love of his life, and then the shutters come down. On Quantum [of Solace], the flawed movie that it is, it’s about revenge. And Skyfall is about M. It’s about loss. They’re big themes. And I think, ‘Yeah! Why not have big themes?’”
For Craig’s final Bond film, No Time to Die, the theme takes a turn. It’s about “love and family.”
“Because what’s bigger than that?,” he asked. “Bond’s ‘family’ being Moneypenny and Q and M. And then Lashana [Lynch] comes in, and she’s like a distant cousin who you’re not sure about.”
No Time to Die marks the end of Craig’s 14-year reign as James Bond, and while it’s been a rollercoaster ride, there’s no doubt that he’ll miss being a super spy extraordinaire.
“I’m incredibly proud and honored to have been a part of it in the way that I was,” Craig shared, adding that the reason he got to work with “the best people in the industry.”
“So I just think: if you can’t get excited about a Bond movie, what can you get excited about?,” he added.
No Time to Die opens in theaters October 8.
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