Daniel Craig Interview

Daniel Craig is looking tired and it's not surprising. With his second Bond film Quantum Of Solace about to open, he is arguably the most in-demand actor in the world right now.

But the lines around his blue eyes don't dull their sparkle and the slight sound of fatigue in his voice doesn't diminish his obvious enthusiasm for the role.

"I've been talking all day, I'm wound up like a coil now," he says by way of apology.

Dressed in a grey suit, with a checked handkerchief in his breast pocket, a black waistcoat and crisp white shirt, he looks just like the slick MI6 agent.

However, you just wouldn't expect James Bond to be wearing a sling around his right arm.

"Damn, I was trying to hide that," he jokes, at mention of the shoulder injury. "I think I tore it a few years ago, maybe even before I started as Bond, there's no way of telling, but doing two Bond movies didn't help."

At just over an hour and forty minutes, Quantum Of Solace is one of the shortest of the 22 Bond films, but it's also the most action-packed and Daniel is justifiably proud to say he did most of his own stunts.

"I didn't push myself any further [than on Casino Royale], but I was involved in the action sequences a lot earlier. We had to rehearse them about two months before we set up, but only because I wanted to get them right," he says.

"The shooting wasn't harder, in certain respects it was easier, because I knew what I was doing this time. But we had time restraints on this movie, there was a potential actor's strike happening, so we had a cut-off date.

"I had to film and in the evening rehearse and in my day's off rehearse, so that made it more physically challenging."

Daniel's first Bond outing in Casino Royale took more at the box office than any other and won him an army of female fans for the tight blue trunks scene.

"I could never have guessed that it was going to do as well as that, all of it was a surprise to me. A few days before the premiere, I knew we had a good film, I knew that we'd done all we could, but beyond that I had no benchmark.

"As you well know, most of the films I've made, it's not all been about box office, so it was amazing. It was a huge surprise, but very pleasant."

Casino Royale also silenced certain die-hard fans who claimed Daniel was too blond and too short to play their screen hero.

"I got over that a long time ago," he says of the criticism.

"I half expected what happened because I understood people's passion for these movies and that they would react passionately to a new thing. The important thing was to get it right and do the best Bond movie we could."

With Daniel in the role, the franchise was stripped back down to basics, with 007 becoming a ruthless bare-knuckled fighter, who didn't need to rely on gadgets to get him out of a fix.

Bond has fewer catchy one-liners and is seemingly a more emotional man.

"It makes for more interesting viewing," says Daniel of this new 'realistic' approach to the Bond films.

"I've genuinely pinched a lot from Ian Fleming, I think his Bond is very psychological, he thinks about things, he's morally ambiguous, he's an assassin, he kills people for a living, but he always goes after the bad guys.

"Along the way, I think it's interesting to throw in some plot, but there's no deep, meaningful thing here, I don't approach it like some big dramatic piece, I just say 'let's get the script into good shape and tell a story'."

As for risking life and limb again as Bond in future, Daniel says he would love to make another film, but admits he doesn't know how many more times he'll reprise the role.

"I genuinely would just love to do another one, but maybe I'm just superstitious, or just stupidly pessimistic, I don't know, I'm just going to see how it goes.

"I'm only borrowing the character. This is great, but someone else is going to come along and probably, hopefully do a better job than I've done and move it on, so it's not mine, it's Ian Fleming's and the Broccolis'.

"I want to say something like I'm the caretaker, but that's a really naff thing to say," he continues, with a laugh.

By Kate Whiting

Daniel was born in Merseyside and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His first major TV role was in BBC drama Our Friends In The North.

Since then, the actor has turned his hand to a variety of roles, from Angelina Jolie's love interest in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider to poet Ted Hughes alongside Gywneth Paltrow's Sylvia Plath.

Daniel has a daughter from his marriage to Scottish actress Fiona Loudon and he is currently in a relationship with American film producer Satsuki Mitchell.

His next film, Defiance, is due out in January and sees star him alongside Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell.

"It was based around a story that happened in the Second World War and was just too good to resist."