The name's Craig... Daniel Craig

When it comes to the perfect James Bond everyone has an opinion. Each time it’s announced a Bond actor is to be replaced the tongues start wagging with countless rumours of who’s in the running to take over as the world’s best-known spy. Ian Fleming is famously reported to have been appalled when he heard Sean Connery was to be cast then changed his mind once he saw him on the big screen. Most of us have a ‘favourite’ Bond and an idea of who would be a good choice to play the part in the future.

Rarely, however, has a casting decision attracted as much controversy as when Daniel Craig was announced as Pierce Brosnan’s replacement. He wasn’t perhaps the most obvious choice  as the smooth and charming agent, but he’s made the role his own as a grittier and slightly less suave 007 who will be back on our big screens next October.

Unlike previous Bond actors, who were encouraged not to do too much high profile work outside the 007 world while they were cast in the role, Craig is busier than ever and is currently appearing on the big screen in Cowboys and Aliens, an adaptation of a popular graphic novel.

It’s this film that gives me the opportunity to meet the 43 year old who set thousands of female pulses racing when he stepped out of the water in swimming trunks in Casino Royale.

There are hundreds of questions I would love to ask him, but I’m limited to a few minutes. and questions on his latest movie, Cowboys and Aliens, so, after Bond, what appealed to him about appearing in this movie?

“It was probably the western element, although I’m a huge science fiction fan.

I think I’ve always wanted to play a cowboy, so that’s the bottom line.

“I was surprised that they were asking me even to sort of do this really because obviously I’m from where I’m from and I don’t really have a background of westerns, it would be the first time I ever got in the saddle, but I was pleasantly surprised by the way it was written and the approach they were taking. Although it’s called Cowboys and Aliens, which is what it’s about and there’s no getting away from it, it’s a straight western, and we did it for real. We did it so that the humour and the scares and the fun that are in the movie come out of a real situation and we stuck to the western rules and that was important. We made it into an authentic cowboy movie.”

Another reason the film appealed to him is that it gave him the chance to work with one of his acting heroes, Harrison Ford.

“The truth of it is... I don’t know when Blade Runner came out, but I went to the cinema and sat in there on my own – not many people went to the cinema I went to – without knowing what was playing. Blade Runner came on and I thought then I want to work with that man (laughs)… and I did!”
It’s an indication that he was always destined to work in films although it was theatre that first introduced Craig to acting.

Born in Chester, he and his sister were brought up mainly by their mother after their parents split when Craig was just four years old. It was his mother, an art teacher, who encouraged his love of acting by taking him to the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. He was a regular in school plays before being accepted into the National Youth Theatre and later joining the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Minor film and TV roles followed before his big break in the BBC2 series Our Friends in the North. From there he attracted the attention of movie producers and before long he was starring in the first Lara Croft movie, opposite Angelina Jolie, and then Layer Cake, the much acclaimed British thriller that is rumoured to have caught the attention of the Bond producers.

While Craig is now undoubtedly best known for playing James Bond, he continues to do other parts and tells me he enjoys variety which is why he was keen to do Cowboys and Aliens, that and the chance to work closely with horses which was a huge draw for him.

“It was just different. I don’t get to ride many horses in Bond so that was the main distinction. I didn’t get any more bruises than usual. I’m getting better at horse-riding, but I’m no expert, and a lot of what you see is my brilliant double and the stunt men. Funnily enough I picked up more bruises at the studio when we got back to LA than I did when we were out filming. More things [on sets] are made out of fibreglass and seem to scratch and bruise you more than the real thing.

“I’d done some riding, but I’d done mostly European riding which is very different from the western saddle style of riding, but I was very, very keen to do it because I love horses and I love being around them and to gain some confidence on a horse was a dream. I’m no great shakes on a horse, but I’m better than I was!”

In addition to Cowboys and Aliens he’s also working on the Hollywood remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and will be seen later this year in the new Tintin movie and a horror film, Dream House, where he met British actress, Rachel Weisz. The pair managed the unthinkable and surprised the media by tying the knot in a low key ceremony in June attended by only four guests including Craig’s 18-year-old daughter Ella (from a two-year marriage to actress Fiona Loudon in the early 1990s) and Weisz’s five-year-old son.

Having both come out of long-term relationships in 2010, Craig with film producer Satsuki Mitchell and Weisz with director Darren Aronofsky, the pair’s relationship and wedding went more or less unnoticed by the press, a real achievement for two A-listers. Craig has always been notoriously protective of his private life and previously was only photographed with Satsuki Mitchell after they’d been together for two years.

However, with so many high profile films coming up and his third appearance as Bond next year, it’s unlikely he’ll manage to stay out of the limelight for long.

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