Daniel Craig looks back at his time as James Bond

As the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc on the globe, the release of Daniel Craig’s James Bond movie has been postponed. During this time of uncertainty, the actor sat down for an interview where he spoke at length about his journey towards bagging the role of agent 007.

During his conversation with Men’s Magazine GQ, Craig spoke about how No Time to Die marks the end of his tenure as James Bond. He revealed to Sam Knight that the experience working for the franchise was a bittersweet deal and that he is now ready to let the role go.

“He was 37 and blond when he was cast as the world’s most famous spy, in 2005. He is 52 now, his hair is dirty gray, and he feels twinges of arthritis,” Knight stated.

There were a number of hurdles during the filming process for the most recent film, from the director quitting, to Craig sustaining an injury “and that was before a novel virus swept the globe, delaying the movie’s April release by seven months, to November.”

Daniel feels he is now ready to explore new opportunities lying in front of him and it seems only fair to look back at the journey for it has been truly marvelous for him. However, Craig has not always felt the same way. At his very first meeting, the actor was convinced he was not right for the role, for he was afraid of meeting himself. “He had an image of his washed-up older self in a pub, telling strangers that he could have been Bond," Knight explained.

But the moment the studio demanded an on-screen test, albeit appalled, Craig refused to mimic his predecessors and wanted to embrace the flaws of Bond’s true self. “The Bond of the books was someone Craig could relate to (a) cold, messed up, human,” Knight believes.

Soon after he attained fame from his very first Bond movie Casino Royale, he knew that there was nowhere for him to go but up. “Making his first two Bond films, Craig experienced, at times, a suffocating sense of responsibility. When he accepted the part, he had insisted on having a say in the creative process, but this sometimes left him feeling like he had to control everything. Skyfall made a billion dollars. It also had a solid script.”