BAFTA: A Life In Pictures: Daniel Craig

Edith Bowman: Hi, I thought I'd wait till I got up the stairs before I talked to you just in case. And welcome ladies and gentlemen to this ‘BAFTA Life In Pictures’ with Daniel Craig.

Before we start we wanted to thank TCL media for their support of this, our first live ‘BAFTA A Life In Pictures’ since December 2019. So exciting to be back.

TCL has supported BAFTA through the COVID-19 pandemic with support of the BAFTA television sessions as well as an online ‘Life And Pictures’ event with George Clooney in December last year. And we give sincere thanks for all your continued support.

Yes, one more round of applause. Thank you. It's good, it's warming you up for the main event.

Now, in just a moment we are going to look at a trailer for their new franchise. But first, we're all here this evening to hear from BAFTA-nominated actor Mr Daniel Craig.

But before we do that, let's take a look at a message from our sponsors.

[clip plays]

EB: Now then, on to the main show. A career that spans three decades and covers pretty much every genre of filmmaking and the most celebrated of film makers.

Before we welcome our hugely talented guest, shall we just remind ourselves of some of his magical movie moments.

[clip plays]

EB: Ladies and gentleman, Mr. Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig: Thank you very much.

EB: Welcome.

DC: How’re you doing?

EB: Good, how are you?

DC: Oh great!

This is really overstimulating for me, this. I don't know about you, but I haven't been out for a long time.

EB: We haven't even started yet!

DC: We’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.

Breathe, Daniel, breathe.

EB: I've watched that montage quite a few times over the past few days and there are very specific moments in it that really get to me every time I watch it, but do you ever get the chance to reflect?

I mean, did you watch that? How does it feel seeing that kind of flash of…

DC: Yeah, I don't. I mean, I don't watch my old stuff ever. I really try and avoid it if I can.

Yeah, I've done it quite a lot, haven't I?

I kind of forget that I've been doing this for quite a long time and that brings back a lot of lovely, lovely memories.

EB: Well, I hope we're going to dive into a few those tonight because we are going to take a journey through this extraordinary career and what was actually really difficult about tonight was just keeping it to a certain number of films. Because when you do look back, there is so much that you've done and so I hope you don't mind if we go way back to start with.

DC: Please yes.

EB: I want to know if there was a specific moment, or a collection of moments, or things, or people, that gave you that sparkle to think ‘I want to consider this career as an actor’.

DC: Well, yeah, I've been very, very fortunate to have had some people in my life who've mentored me, or given me a couch to sleep on, and have supported me through throughout the beginning of my career.

A couple of people, one is Ed Wilson and another was Brian Lee, who used to run the National Youth Theatre, and he had a massive amount of faith in me and I didn't really understand it, but gave me tremendous confidence, way too much, probably.

It made me believe that I could actually do this and actually get to have a career in this business that I love so much. And then leading on to people like Mary Selway, who was a casting director, a wonderful person.

You know, I'd be humming and harring about jobs. One in particular was Love is the Devil which I thought ‘oh God, this strange film about Francis Bacon, the painter’, and at eight o'clock on a Sunday morning my phone went. I had not gone to bed that much earlier than that, and the phone went ‘ello it’s Mary’. And I answered ‘yes Mary’. She said ‘you're doing this job’. ‘OK, OK.’

And you know stuff like that. I wouldn't be here without those people you know.

EB: They see the bigger picture, don't they?

DC: Way more than I could. I was so in this sort of washing machine of the fact that I was actually working, 'cause I went to drama school... I remember we had a really good afternoon where the tax advisor came in. I thought, ‘great, well this is gonna be a good class’ and we all went in there. He sat there, and he basically said ‘most of you are not gonna work’ and we just went ‘oh, OK!’, and that was just the way it was.

You know, unfortunately the attrition rate out of drama school is so great. It's just not likely. But somehow I kept on landing on my feet, stumbling. It got worse as I got older, I did stop landing on my feet and start  landing on my face.

It just happened and I also had this huge desire to make movies.

And I was very fortunate when I first started off to earn some money and do some television and it was good and it was really good stuff.

But in the back of my mind I said ‘I don't want to do television, I want to do this!’

I mean there's nothing wrong with television, it's just I wanted to do this.

I want it to be 30 foot across! I mean it’s so egotistical, it's beyond. But I just was like: that's what I want.

And it was hard. It was a tough time. I mean it was Merchant Ivory or nothing and believe me I didn't get cast in a lot of Merchant Ivory!

I just you know, I plugged away and like I said with people the help of people like Mary, it happened.

EB: But all that training with the National Youth Theatre is all building blocks in terms of you being able to take on these roles in the film world. And the theatre experience and the TV experience you had… you take everything from that and put it into everything you’ve done, in a way.

DC: I suppose that's the kind of advice that you give to someone who's starting off in the industry is ‘just do! Just do it.’

I remember Peter Flannery from Our Friends in the North and he used give writing lessons, and he just went ‘writers write. Just write!’

And it applies to everything, really. You gotta try and just do everything you can. I just had a lot of fortune early on and with the National Youth Theatre, it wasn't just about acting. And we didn't think about just acting, it was about this collective effort that we do, and putting on a show, and being with a group of people, and learning discipline like turning up on time so the show went on and things like that.

If you were late, you got so much

• ***, you couldn't be late and that was really invaluable.

I kind of eventually scraped into drama school and for the first year, I was late all the time, it's terrible – I nearly got chucked out three times.

I remember the guy the head admissions would say ‘that's spurious Daniel’.  I’d have this long excuse that I'd made up about the fact that was late again and then something just clicked, which was ‘if I don't do this, what am I going to do?’

And when I left school at 16, I mean I've got a couple of GCSE's and I was like ‘I'm going to be stuffed, I’ll have to be a waiter’. I'll have to be go and do the thing that I did all the way from when I was 16 and I just did not want to do it.

So I just I used to get to school an hour earlier then everybody else and just work my

• *** off. ‘Cause what else was I gunna do?

EB: You mentioned Our Friends in the North

DC: Great wigs! I’m so glad you showed that!

EB: There were a couple of giggles from that! It really stands the test of time and it's a really brilliant and really forward-thinking piece of drama. Both in terms of the characterisation and even the look of it.

What do you remember about that time?

DC: Charlie Pattinson, who was the producer, he went shopping at the National Theatre and I was in Angels in America there.

And it certainly wasn't an offer. I had to go and audition. And it was to play Geordie, who apparently was from Newcastle.

And it is probably one of the hardest accents. I mean it's tough and I was really struggling with it and they held out for me.

I know Peter Flannery was like ‘no, he's no good.’

So I did my final audition and I learned a joke in a Geordie accent.

And I did my piece and I went ‘OK, can I just tell a joke’ and I just tell a joke.

Somehow it was much easier to learn the joke in the accent than it was to do the script. It was too much pressure.

So I told this joke and he laughed.

And I got the part so that way!

EB: Have you always used that trick from then on with accents, having an ‘in’ to an accent?

DC: I haven't had to audition like that since so it’s quite good for me!

I’ll tell a story… Road to Perdition… I got a call to go and see Sam in the in the officers in in Mill Street.

I go in and I sit down and he tells me it’s a gangster movie in Chicago playing Paul Newman’s son.

And I said ‘thanks, enough thanks. That’s all I need to know, thanks. Let's just leave it there.’

And he was like, ‘No sit down, do you want the job?’

I auditioned terribly. I'm the world's worst auditioner. How I ever got by in this business… I will never know.

EB: Why?

DC: I'm just terrible. I kind of fluff lines and get nervous.

So he flew out to Chicago and it was freezing cold. I was like, ‘oh, this a crazy city’ and there was snow everywhere and I went to the offices.

I sat down and I did this reading and they filmed it.

And I did it three times and Sam said, ‘oh, just stop, you've got the

• ****** job.’

I was like ‘I'll be better! I swear to God I'll be better!’

Then he got me out and he introduced me to Conrad Hall who was the DOP on the movie, who sadly died not long after, and was you know, the great Conrad Hall.

And it kind of went from there!

I would audition now if I had to. People don't want me to, but I would if I had to.

EB: You say feature film was what you wanted to do, that's what you wanted to achieve. How was that journey from theatre and TV into film? Was it an easy transition?

DC: Well, the joke was, I left drama school and went and did a Warner Brothers movie. This film called The Power of One’.

When you're in your third year drama school you get your one lead which is your showpiece and I hadn't played my lead yet.

And Sally, who's still my agent from way back then…

They offered me this part to play the bad guy in the movie, and I went ‘Sally, I haven't played my lead yet!’

She just went ‘Daniel. You're going to Africa.’

I say, ‘Oh, OK, OK, good.’

I've thankfully had people like that, who have seen sense in my life all the way through.

So I did a movie off the bat, which was a way to start and I earned more money than I’d ever earned before. I then owe tax for the next five years of my life.

EB: Didn't listen to that tax man did you, that's the problem.

DC: No! He said we wouldn't work!

So that was weird and I went to LA and did some auditions and as I walked into auditions and it just said ‘Nazi, Nazi, Nazi’

Fucking hell I can't do this. That’s not what I want to do. So I came home. In my mind I thought, ‘If this works, I'll stick it out. I'll stay in L.A., I'll give this a go.’ But I just thought I'm just going to get cast as bad guys. That's what I look like, this is what I'm gonna can't get cast as. So I came back and I started doing John Maybury’s Love is the Devil and then the occasional sort of your European movie that would be filming in Ireland or some sort of obscure thing. But it was movies!

I did a movie in Germany and I got to work with David Watkins, who invented the Wendy Light, which if you know anything about Wendy Lights it allowed us to shoot in the dark on film stock. And you know brilliant people like that.

And so I gathered all of this experience. I kept on working in movies.

EB: And you mentioned Love is the Devil. That's our first clip actually, which we're going to take a look at right now. So from 1998, Love is a Devil.

[clip plays]

EB: Such a beautifully constructed film.

DC: Do you know what’s beautiful, I haven't seen that projected since the 19-whatever it was!

John Matheson is the GOP on it. It's just it's amazing how it holds up.

There's two stories that I'd love to tell about this.

There's clean one, which is that we didn't have any money. I mean there was no money whatsoever.

We had cameras that had no lenses, but John Matheson had just shot a video with Kris Kristofferson, on film, and had all these lenses and so we knicked them off that and hiring house company kept saying ‘Could we have lenses back please?’ Yeah, yeah! Next week, next week, next week…

We literally filled the whole movie on those lenses so borrowed.

But that scene you showed, where I'm scrubbing my nails… we were in Cannes and we had a distributor screening to try and find someone to sell the movie to.

It didn’t jump into Americans hands.

They weren't queuing up to buy it, but there were American distributors in the room and they watched that scene. And then got up and left. All of them gone.

I was like

• *** oh God.

And what happened was, they thought I was going to fist him.

That's where their heads went, which tells them so much more about them than it does about the movie, quite frankly.

But they all went!  They were like ‘Oh my God, Oh my God. No!’, and we're off at the door.

George Dyer was an obsessive compulsive.

EB: Watching you and Derek on screen in this as well… But it wasn't always going to be Derek playing Francis, was it?

DC: Oh Christ no. Tell me who it was?

EB: Was it not Malcolm McDowell?

DC: Oh, it was Malcolm for a while! Yeah, that's right, of course.

Yeah, I don't know what happened. I don't remember. You just reminded me. It's always Derek now in my head, so I'd forgotten that.

Derek was just amazing. As everybody was. Tilda’s in it and literally all of the young British artists who are in the movie… I had no idea who they were.

Tracy was in there and all the gang were in there and people kept telling me these are all the young British artists.

But I was like, ‘That's so not my scene’

And there was so much going on, on the movie. I mean, the stories! But I can't tell you, it's way too outrageous.

EB: Worse than the one you just told?!

DC: Well, maybe on a level.

EB: Was it quite a challenge that, because there wasn't really that much available about George really was there in terms of that character?

DC: No, you know, John and his partner Bailey who worked on the script, got it into this construct and then John’s visual style which you see there.

I think it's the Marlborough Gallery that owns Bacon's paintings. They were like no way, no way you're allowed to have paintings, so we got students from the Slade in, who just stood in the corner of the studio painting these huge canvases like Bacon.

We had to destroy them all after the after the film.

Funnily enough when they saw the movie they would be like ‘what do you want? What do you need?’

‘Cause they was thought it was a brilliant way to sell Bacon paintings.

He had a number of lovers over the years, two of who committed suicide, which is not good form really.

But who were very kind of working class and normal I suppose if that's the right word.

Clearly Bacon hung out with these extraordinary people at the colony rooms. He liked talking about the weather and going to the races. He refused a knighthood and a peerage.

He was grounded, you know.

EB: It's brilliant watching the pair of you on screen together.

I just wondered, at that point were you were still quite new to film and Derek I imagine was the pedigree of actor… I don't know if that was something that you took advantage of being able to learn from him?

DC: Having worked with quite a few famous people over the years, I've always tried to go ‘Listen. I'm here for a reason. They think I can do it. What I've got to do is do my job as best I can and if I can.’

It's not like showing weakness, but it's like going, ‘I've got this.’

It didn't mean I didn’t watch and learn and admire, but I just I just was like, ‘I'm here to this.’

I had to feel like I deserved to be there.

And if I had to diminish myself in any way... Again, that's that ego I'm talking about.

Which, you know, somehow pushed me through these things.

EB: It's gotta be there, though, has it not?

DC: No, no, for sure, it has, it has.

I just kind of look at myself back then and just think God, the arrogance of myself is incredible!

But I think that's what I did. Like I said, I wanted to make movies and I knew that's where I wanted to be.

So when I got the chance to do amazing things like this, I was like ‘this is where I'm supposed to be. So I didn't get nervous.

EB: From that point, did you feel like you were in a place where you knew what you wanted to do in terms of the types of films that you wanted to do? From having that experience going to LA, but then coming back and really immersing yourself in independent film?

DC: Thank God there were directors like John Mayberry around.

There were opportunities to do these incredibly interesting films.

If they did happen in the States, I didn't know where to go looking for them.

They must have been in different cities than LA, as I certainly wouldn't have had a clue where to find them.

London was my home, and that's where that's where these people were.

Like I said, a few people helped me out and introduced me.

EB: I just want to say thank you for talking about this next film because it’s very, very sad to hear of the passing of Roger and it was really bittersweet watching this film again, The Mother, that you did with him. You said you had such a great shooting experience on this film that you were kind of desperate to work with him again, which you did…

DC: I did, yeah.

EB: You did Enduring Love, and I wanted to ask what it was about him and what it was about this particular experience, before we see the clip, that made it such a good experience?

DC: Barbara will tell you that’s another film I didn't want to do!

Mary is like you could do it, and Roger is just saying you're the only person for this and that faith is just… I don't know what to say.

I might struggle through this next bit.

EB: Let's watch the clip and we can talk about it afterwards.

DC: Yeah, can we? Thank you.

EB: This is a wonderful, wonderful scene from The Mother.

[clip plays]

EB: I love that scene. She's so beautiful.

DC: I know, I know.

EB: It's such a gorg--it feels so real that scene it just feels like it was improv-ed. It feels so natural.

DC: Well that's you know Rog, it's like you know. First and foremost, you know you didn't start shooting until the script was absolutely, absolutely right. And then we’d just sit around for a week and we just we just read it and you know, God bless you know and she was terrified. And I was, you know, we were both kind of terrified in a way it was like, and we just sort of just talked it through and just kind of like--and until we were kind of absolutely at a point where you know, we do it, we're going to go get on with it now, let's go.

And you know it was a brilliant, brilliant cast and Hanif, at hi kind of best and yeah, I mean, someone just said to me, you know, like working with Roger was like taking a long warm bath and I think that's kind of like, you know, it was just--he was just delicious. Just delicious and you know he’d do a couple of takes and you know he goes, yeah well, I've got that now and so why don't you just do one for you? And you'd sort of do it and it would be never as good as the early takes 'cause you, you know, give an actor enough rope to hang themselves, so it's like… Umm, but he just has always allowed you to sort of just, you know, and a lot it's not improvised, I mean it's very stuck to the script, but it was he was like keep it loose just keep it loose and that conversational style was just--and it's so intimate, I'd forgotten how intimate that is, it's like it's incredible.

EB: Even when they're on opposite sides of the room there's just there's this kind of pull between them that’s beautiful.

DC: Yeah, this was just, you know, his technique was let it happen, I mean I don't really… We should probably move on 'cause I'm just like it's…

EB: I wanted to just mention Hanif, you mentioned there as well because I wanted to ask if this was an example where you know the writing, like you say, is… wouldn't shoot until the writing was right, and I wondered if this was a, uh, a time where you really recognized that and the importance of a writer and the importance.

DC: Well, then you're talking about the kind of lessons one learns and that was, for me, those are very hard lessons. I mean great lessons to learn and seeing somebody who is just you know, I mean, I'm still, you know… It doesn't always work out that way, but I'm like, you know, if you can have your story sorted and the story that you want to tell sorted before you start filming, then you're on your way because you know it's very difficult to write on the hoof. But like you know, Hanif was around all the time and he was tweaking things and we were kind of changing things around and you know, we shot it very quickly. I think we shot that in Chiswick, I think mostly. We had Hogarth’s grave I think we went to and yeah, amazing. I mean just amazing. And then we made Enduring Love which was like a chance to do it again.

And the sadness is we always, the awful sadness is that I kept on talking about the fact we'd make the third one, but we never got the chance so.

EB: I think Anna is one of my favorite of your leading ladies. Just it's just really special.

DC: Yeah I just love her to death.

EB: I I watched a clip actually of her and Derek Jacobi on an old clip off the telly, talking and comparing notes about both having intimate scenes with you which I found absolutely brilliant. It was so great to watch.

DB: That's great news, yeah.

EB: She’s like “I only got once he got twice!” It was it was brilliant. It was so funny to watch.

But with those connections that you make be it with your writer or your DOP. You've mentioned you know the DOP a couple of times in projects there, is that really important to you? At what point did that become important to make connections with the creatives of a film and knowing that it wasn't just about the actor and director, it was about that kind of wider collection of people?

DC: Well, I'd go back to the youth theater thing, which is where that learning about the fact that there's a team involved and, and I've always been--I've told this story before, but I lived in a small town on the Wirrall and there was one cinema and it was about--I mean one tiny little to cinema, a proper fleapit and all the movies that used to get to us had literally been around the country five times before they got to us, and there was scratchy prints that used to come but they showed everything and they changed the movies like every three days or something.

So I just used to sneak in there and watch these films and watch them and just--a lot of them were just rubbish, but I didn't care because it was this sort of, I think I just got into the whole kind of watching uh Blade Runner in this in this movie theater and watching and thinking and looking at how the frame had just been jammed with visuals and when I got into movie making, it fascinated me how that plays an important role. I remember Connie Hall, she was shooting Paul Newman and he lit the scene, it was so beautiful where the sunlight was sort of like arcing through the window. It's a big shaft of light and they just--he put smoke in so you can see the light and I remember I was just kind of listening in this conversation and he was saying “Connie, Connie now I'm just gonna lean into that light like that” and I was just like wow. And he did in the scene, he just sort of leaned in and it just lit up half his face and it was just like stuff like that is just magic to me. An appreciation of that and what the people around you are doing and the set builders. You know one of the reasons why I set on set with earphones in and try and not talk to anybody is 'cause I would just be talking to everybody. “What you doing? What you doing? What you doing?” All I want to know is what's going on 'cause it's fascinating.

EB: What an amazing moment to witness.

DC: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, I know, yeah.

EB: I can see that, now, you've taken that into certain moments.

DC: Well, I just love lights. I mean this is a light medium. That's what's so amazing and when it gets right there's nothing like it you know?

EB: We're gonna move on to next film now if that's alright and we're gonna fast forward to 2004, Layer Cake. Let’s have a look.

[Clip plays]

[Applause]

EB: So good. A lot of people sort of saw this as a completely different direction for you, did you?

DC: Yeah, I mean again, another film I was dragged kicking and screaming it. Seems to be my MO, doesn’t it? Look, the way it turned out was fantastic but I thought it was sort of all sort of popular kind of something or other and actually it what it what it did for me was it freed me up in a way that I couldn't have imagined.

You know it's sort of not serious, but it's a kind of it's a sort of funny film. It's a comedy to a certain degree and it I just I don't know what happened, when I got into it and I started reading and I went God, this is so much fun. And I kind of allowed myself to enjoy it sounds like kind of like I'm some sort of stoic. You know, Matthew was just, you know, he’s many things, but he's always, he knows what he wants and he is just, you know when he says he's going to do something he does it and he is right, it's incredible. It was the start of this amazing career he has now and he just said “I'm going to direct” and he did again he gave me space and I gave him space and we kind of just…

But it was a good script, it was funny, we got a great cast. We had a ball and I think it shows.

EB: It felt like it was a real moment in British independent filmmaking as well. It was a kind of it was a gear shift in a way it felt anyway.

DC: Listen, you know the only regret about that film is we didn't have a an advertising budget and if we had I think we could have sold it in the States. But there was no money, it was just, you know, it's just what we had and it hit here and people saw it and they loved it. And like four years later, in America, suddenly it was like “oh Layer Cake, oh wow, Layer Cake” but you know, there was no money and it cost so much money to advertise in the States. But I think if they backed it we could have really hit with it.

EB: It also felt as well as it being a pivotal moment for British cinema, it felt like it was a real moment for your career in terms of it was a kind of step more into a mainstream arena.

DC: Everybody talks about it being an audition for Bond, so I mean, it's like… They always want to talk about “oh, you know Layer Cake, it must have been your audition,” and I was like, “believe me, I was the last thing on my mind that was ever gonna play James Bond at that point.” I mean there's no…

It definitely changed, shifted things in a way. People saw me in a different way and “oh, you could be a leading man”. That definitely had a an incredibly positive effect on my career, amazingly positive effect on my career.

EB: Who convinced you do this one then? Mary, again?

DC: Sally did. Yeah yeah, she’s nodding. Yeah, don’t be stupid she said.

EB: That's such an interesting thing though, what holds you back from saying yes to things or kind of going no it's not for me.

DC: Buyer's remorse. I don't know. It's a weird one. You know I get asked about to give advice to young actors and I just… Don't! You can find any other career, don't do it. And I mean it because it's like it's so degrading sometimes and it's so depressing dealing with rejection the way you have to do it. And my defense against it, was to sort of kind of go, I don't know what I did--its defense.

EB: It's an armor.

DC: It is, it is and I think when things like that came along, not being able to see that it was a good thing—thank  God I had great advice and  people guided me through. But I was sort of always a bit defensive, always a little bit like “what's that about?” and I think that just comes from, you know, the early days when it just wasn't working. I don’t know, I was always bolshy, that’s all.

EB: You know when I watched it again the other day and the scene where you're in the nightclub and there sat next to you, your Q, your future Q.

DC: I mean, I mean, you know Ben was also in The Trench, a movie I did, and he was fifteen, Ben, or sixteen, I can't remember. He was so young. I mean he looks sixteen now, bastard. And it’s like he was in that, he had a small part I couldn't tell you, but I couldn't keep my eyes off him and I was like “what is, who is this kid?”

And he was going to go off to university and he did and he went off to university and he did his thing and you know and he came out and then it came up, his name came up for this and I was like “get him” I said to Matthew “you’ve got to get him. He's the real fucking deal and you know—is it here? Trying to think, there’s another movie he’s in as well…

EB: He’s in James Bond with you…

DC: Oh yeah, that!

EB: But even when he's sat next to you on a bench in an art gallery, he just has this kind of, you know, he’s not really saying much, he just he has this incredible presence. There's something physical about him as an actor I think that’s absolutely wonderful.

DC: He's so brilliant in this new movie.

EB: Yeah? We'll talk about that in a minute if we've got time. Of course we will.

Directors: You mentioned Matthew and I mean when you list the directors that you've worked with, you mentioned a couple already but I love to see kind of where directors place you. I mean, I loved Logan Lucky, I love that film so much.

DC: Good yeah.

EB: I thought it was absolutely brilliant and you know, working with Soderbergh, then working with people like Fincher and you talk about working with Sam as well. Is the director on a project part of the yes or no?

DC: Sure, yeah, I mean you know I mean, I always wanted to work with Fincher and I wanted to work with Soderbergh and just the opportunity came along and so it's just like you know… It is but it’s also about meeting somebody and seeing if you click. I mean you know you’ve kind of got to spend quite a lot of time with these people and I think they feel the same, that's why directors feel the same way. They want to kind of go “can I go to work with these people? Can I, you know, can we meet up at 5:00 o'clock in the morning and be civil to each other?” So yeah, it's a big thing, and I admire directors so much and people ask me often whether I'll direct and I’m like no fucking way, it's like Jesus that's the hard job. If you don't know what you're supposed to do, you've got to pretend, and that is part of a director's job. You've got to be leading, you know, so many people are going to be looking at you for answers all the time, and you kind of gotta just… Great directors know how to do that, manage people, you know, Roger was one of those people. You know, I’ve worked with some great directors who just, you know they allow a creative process to happen, that sounds a bit wanky, but that's kind of what it is.

EB: Everything you've been talking about, you know about how you're like a sponge and you suck everything up from watching, you know you have to sit with headphones on otherwise you’d just be asking everybody questions.

DC: Yeah, yeah.

EB: It feels like you're fueling yourself up to make film because you love it so much, so I'm surprised that you say you’re not going to direct.

DC: I don't know.

EB: You’re crying out for it! Well, we are!

DC: Alright well I mean, I don't know I just feel like maybe. I don't know maybe, maybe I would.

It's like the actors turning around to me going “you want me to do what?!” And I’m like “no, no, whatever you want to do whatever you wanna do!” It's terrifying!

EB: Yeah, but you don't hear, you know not all actors take as much notice of the craft as when talking to you, you very clearly pay attention, you're interested.

DC: I just love when you're on a set and you've got these people around you and they're all focused in on you know, this is what we're doing. I mean, you can sort of talk about making movies and we get into this little bubble, but you kind of have to get into a bubble to do it. You're there, this is what we're doing, we've got long hours and when that focus is right and you get the talent there and it's allowed to work, and it's allowed to do its job… it's just magic. I mean, that's the process I enjoy most, you know.

EB: What's a Spielberg set like?

DC: There's all sorts of traditions he has. That was another one, that was a call: Meet up with a director in Paris who may or may not be Steven Spielberg.

EB: And wear a carnation.

DC: Yeah, wear a pink carnation. We went to, where did we meet? The Ritz I think. Anyway, I got on the train, I’m thinking this is going to be bullshit, I’m going to get there. It's like you know my mates will go now, “It's Sam Spielman, it’s not fucking Steven Spielberg is it?” I got there and I went upstairs and there's Mathieu Kassovitz and he's like looking at me going Oh my God, hello, how are you?

It was one of those meetings where I went in and basically they was Steven and I'd met him briefly before and he just gave me the lowdown on Munich and I just again, I went enough, yeah whatever you want me to do, I don't care. And he, you know, he cast me. It was incredible, I mean I sort of didn't quite believe it.

I mean he does this thing he never turns up—you’re kind of there, we were there like two weeks before shooting and we were all just waiting for him to arrive 'cause he doesn't turn up till the day of shooting and then he leaves a day early.

It's a tradition he did up from Jaws, 'cause he thought the crew wanted to kill him on Jaws, so he left a day early. So he does it still, it's history, there are all these things. We were all kind of like very nervous about him coming and we're waiting on set and it’s a night shoot, they keep wetting the street down and he's not here yet, not here yet, he's not here yet. And the cars there and he came in and he just went OK put the camera there, this there and we did this shot and he did a, uh, moving tracking shot we're all sat in a car, it's one shot with a mirror and that and he brings the camera, the tracking shot comes all the way around the car, gets all of our faces, comes around and gets all of our reflections in all the mirrors that comes out and that's how we do the scene. Says Cut, let’s move on.

And that’s that and you’re off, off to the races. He’s really quick, you know, really quick.

EB: Wow, did you ever ask him what it was that made him want to cast you?

DC: Oh no, never thought of asking that.

EB: Wonder what it was?

DC:  Well he actually wanted me, he cast me, I forgot my character name but he cast me as this South African guy.

EB: In Munich? Steve.

DC: In Munich, yeah. Then he wanted to recast me as one of the other parts and I said no please don't, I want to play this guy, I think I know who he is and he's like OK, OK, OK. So he'd seen Enduring Love and he'd see me kind of like wearing glasses and , a bit more studious and I was like “Oh no, I want to play this guy” and  anyway he let me play it.

EB: Why did you want to stick with that character?

DC: I just thought I kind of recognized him. I figured he was, you know, he's one of the most—you know it was a really difficult time that when the London bombing was. We were in Malta and the London bombings happened, and we had security on set. Steven was driven to set a different route every day, we had bomb dogs on set every day.

I mean, I was kind of oblivious to it I have to say, but then you know then 7/7 happened. It was kind of like. OK, now this is all kind of really frightening, you know, but he was so desperate to tell this story and tell it, you know like from the right perspectives and it was an extraordinary experience.

EB: Shall we have a little look?

DC: Sure, yeah, yeah, great.

EB: This is a really weird question, but I mean I'm hungry from watching that scene, but with a scene like that where you are, where there’s food that you’ve got to eat and you’ve gotta, you know, do the scene and pass the food around. Is it all choreographed and like you can only have two potatoes and one slice of meat? Because if you have to do like ten versions of it you're gonna be stuffed.

DC: You've got to kind of hold back a bit and sometimes as long as you're not really pretending like “mmm, I'm eating and it’s delicious.”  You kind of have to go for it a bit. It's just the way it is and hope it doesn't go on too long. I mean, there's often a spit bucket which is pretty disgusting, but you kind of take a big mouthful and chew, chew, cut, so that you can kind of go again. Otherwise you do have to keep an eye on your own continuity, you have to sort of try and remember what's going on. When it’s around a table it's complicated, there's eyelines and the whole situation which again, I'm not clever enough to really understand it and that's why I can't be a director. You know, again, I’d forgotten that, it's so lovely that scene, I haven't seen any of this for so long.

Let it flow, yeah, just let it flow and keep it as natural as possible and it looks like we're eating, it looks like we're having or we're just about to tuck into a big meal. And he does that lovely thing at the end, which is just to have the kind of like little montage of just—so it then looks like we're enjoying each other’s company. It tells such a lovely story and I'd forgotten how great that was.

EB: How many cameras are on that that scene?

DC: I think he only used one, maybe two I can't remember. Again if you use two cameras it gets more complicated 'cause you have to keep the other camera out the other shot. It’s a nightmare. Dinner shots are--I don't look forward to them, they can be, I mean that’s not so bad there’s only like how many, five of us in there? You know if there's ten people at the table, fucking forget it. It’s a week.

EB: A great ensemble cast.

DC: I know, I know, I mean.

EB: Is that a real luxury, as an actor, to have a kind of playground with, you know with friends.

DC: I mean, all those guys, just I mean amazing to get the chance to work with them and just have that again. And again, to be in their company, we're all a bit kind of nervous, we were all nervous. We're all nervous about working with Steven Spielberg. It's like, you know, it's a big deal, you know, but we kind of I think we just we used each other. That's the best way to describe it, I think in that scene we just used each other and that's what makes the scene work, yeah.

EB: Do you know who else, when you're coming on board with the film like this where there is an element of the film that is about a team. I guess part of you at this point is obviously you know who's on that team before you sign up, or are you kind of choosing the team or helping choose the team?

DC: You mean who's gonna be in it?

EB: Yeah, yeah.

DC: Like I'm gonna tell Steven who to cast. “Steve I've got an idea.”

EB: What about…?

DC: I mean he'd already got his ideas. I know I got cast and Eric had already been cast and then you know, like I said, Mathieu was at the same meeting as I was at so, but Ciarán I was like, Ciarán, yes. It's a no brainer.

EB: What about for Knives Out?

DC: About who is in it?

EB: Yeah.

DC: Uh, we discussed things but Rian is really, really good at casting movies.  He's got a real thing for it and you know that cast is like… I mean we just finished shooting the new one and we're pretty good with that one as well, so it's like… That script I got sent that script and it was like I couldn't believe it. I read it and I laughed out loud when I read it. And then I read it again and it was like yeah, he wants you to do it.

And Rian actually flew to New York to see me and he came across and we talked about it and I said “it says Southern accent,” he went “Yep” and I went “Really?!” he went “Yeah,” I was like “OK you asked for it,” and yeah. I mean, it's just delicious. An amazing cast in Knives Out. I mean every single person was brilliant

EB: In terms of kind of finding that Southern accent, 'cause you did another great Southern accent on Logan Lucky as well.

DC: Right, yeah, different area of the country, hopefully.

EB: But great, but you're good with accents-- South African, you know, Geordie, is that fun? Do you enjoy that side of it?

DC: It takes a lot of work. I really have to work really, really hard to do it. I'm a terrible mimic. I mean, you know, you’re not going to, thankfully, ask me to do impressions, but it's like—

EB: Oh, really?

DC: I know, I mean we could, we've got time. It's just appalling, if you asked me to do an accent like that off the cuff it would just be embarrassing. I have to work really hard and integrate it into it, to learn it as I learn the script and learn it and then it becomes part of me.

EB: It’s part of the character isn’t it, it tells you about the character.

DC: Yeah, yeah it can be a real help.

EB: It's part of kind of peeling back who they are.

DC: Yeah, yeah it could be a real help, yeah.

EB: And that's particularly with Benoit Blanc. Great name, I almost said it with this terrible Scottish Southern accent.

DC: Brilliant!

EB: We've got a great clip which we can look at right now.

[Clip plays]

[Applause]

EB: So good. I'm really excited about the new one as well.

DC: Yeah, yeah.

EB: Tell us anything?

DC: No, but it's different. I mean it's a Benoit Blanc mystery, but it's different.

EB: So it's him onto our next case type thing.

DC: Yeah.

EB: Yes, like a new Columbo. I love it.

DC: Yeah, if only yeah yeah.

EB: So good, but I love the scenes with you and Jamie Lee Curtis in Knives Out, I mean.

DC: She’s so fierce and just she's so fierce and she's so strong and she just made me smile, which I just went with that, I just thought she makes Benoit smile.

That thing I said, “how much cash?” I nicked that from Sharon Stone in Casino when I think she asks, she says I need some cash off Robert De Niro and he goes how much she goes that much. Yeah, I think it's in Casino.

EB: Oh that's brilliant. It's really interesting because it's been so nice going back and watching all these films again and it's a really hard film to put into genre and I think that's such a healthy thing because it really takes lots of different little bits. Yeah, it's a kind of, you know, murder mystery type thing, but there are other elements going on there within the film and.

DC: I think that's Rian’s genius. I mean I think that's kind of, he’s a sleuth kind of amateur sleuth, you know he does attempt the New York Times crossword every day, I get to Tuesday and then it goes all wrong. He does it every day in ten minutes and I'm like I'm like, oh God. I mean, it's like he’s constantly doing puzzles. He's constantly working things out and he works out the mechanics of it. Like you know, we don't see it until the mechanics are absolutely worked out. It's a really important sort of part of it, because ultimately it's a whodunit and it needs to marry up.

And then there's the rest of it, which is about you know, the characters, and he's another one of the directors, you know, he's really good, really good with large casts, really good with with maneuvering people and allowing them to sort of do their thing and and take their moment. And that's you know again, that's something I admire.

EB: Does it make a difference that he's written it as well as directed it for you as an actor?

DC: That can be problematic sometimes. I mean, it's not always good, but with this, it isn't. He's precious and he will fight his corner, but if you have a good, you know a good idea he's like, bring it on let's get on with it.

EB: How many Benoit films can we look forward to?

DC: I don't know. I talked to him about it the other day. You know, I mean, we've got this crazy deal with Netflix. We've got two films to do with them, and that's great, and I said what “what's beyond that?” and he went, “Well, do you want to do another one?” I was like “Yeah if you will!” I think as long as we get the ideas and that's what it will boil down to it. We'll figure it out,  we'll figure that out and as long as we're excited by it and we think other people will be excited about, we'll keep doing them. I mean, it's a nice way to, you know… I don't fall over quite as much in these movies, so it's quite nice, yeah.

DC: And you're involved in that by the sounds of it then as well, you're not. You know, you're involved in the…

DC: Well, I'm involved in the sense that we talk, always talk about process and the casting and where we go and certainly where we do go with the next film, which is a long way off doing that just at the moment. But we kind of have been throwing ideas around.

EB: Good, so just before we move on to the 00 gentlemen, there is one role that I had to ask you about today. I mean, impressed beyond, I hope you are as well in terms of having that role which was as a Stormtrooper in Force Awakens. So jealous.

DC: Yeah, I nearly gave up after that. What else am I gonna do?

EB: I mean, I could see why I could see why.

DC: I mean, yeah. So that that went, I mean, I think we were doing Spectre, and all of our crew were on Star Wars. Ben Dixon, who was our seconding, a great lovely man Ben Dixon, he was on was seconding and I kind of went to--I had to go into Pinewood to, I don't know what I had to go to Pinewood for, to do some fitting or something. And I said to Ben, I said, “part for me?”. And he was like, “are you serious?” I was like, yeah. And he went, “I'll go ask JJ”. And he came back and said, yeah.

EB: Put this on!

DC: Thing was, I thought background Storm Trooper. I mean I wanted to do that guy that bumps his head in the original one, you know that person who drops his lightsaber or something. Then I was in a whole fucking scene, I was like—OK! And we did the scene and then I just thought they'll loop me, they’ll put another voice on it, you know, then I had to spend like three hours with JJ on a looping session like doing all the dialogues. Like really, you want me to do this? Get someone else to do this!

EB: I just wanted to try out a Storm Troopers outfit.

DC: Yeah, I just did. And then it was this whole thing was that, you know, are you in Star Wars?

And I kind of went and said no fucking way was I  in Star Wars. I mean, I thought I was great to kind of play around with that and everybody kind of started hating on me 'cause I sort of said I didn't like Star Wars and I just was like, oh it was so stupid. But it was amazing and I'm in the movie and Rian says when he saw the movie the first thing he did afterwards was he said “who was that fucking Storm Trooper?” He said he knew it was somebody, whatever. It’s the way I walk, clearly.

EB: Clearly! So Commander Craig.

DC: Jesus, yes, I know.

EB: Congratulations. You look very dashing in uniform.

DC: I sent the picture to my mum the other day and she just, I mean she doesn't use emojis very often, but she just put lots of smiley faces with hearts on them. And that's just like… Commander Craig. Like I mean listen, it's an honor, you know my father was in the Navy, this came through two years ago and I was like really, is that something? And there’s this honorary position and I just yeah, I'm genuinely touched and honored by the whole thing it's amazing.

EB: Feels like a lovely way to end this whole journey, you’ve been on as well?

DC: Yeah, I think trouble is, I think now I've enlisted. There was a piece of paper with something written on it and I think there might be some small print there. And like Jesus, I said just don't put me in command, that's the only thing you need to do.

EB: Be in the background.

DC: Yeah yeah yeah.

EB: And well, listen, we're going to talk a little bit about James Bond but before we do, I thought it be nice to remind us all about your journey up to this point.

DC: OK alright.

[Clip plays]

[Applause]

EB: So good. So when you see all those clips, are you glad you changed your mind?

DC: Yeah, yeah, I mean listen, I don't know if you've seen the documentary, but it's like they kind of explain all this thing about Spectre about getting injured, which was like kind of not great, but ultimately someone again persuaded me to do it. Barbara Broccoli bullied me and I'm gonna say that right here and I'm so happy I did. I can’t tell you, you know it’s been a weird couple of years and getting to this point, thank goodness we're here and we can actually get the movie into cinemas and get people to see it 'cause we made it for an audience and it's like we're, you know, I'm desperate for people to see it.

EB: When you when you said yes to Barbara after her gentle persuasion—

DC: I mean are you talking about actually doing it in the first place?

EB: Yeah, in the first place. I mean both. Yeah, saying yes to the fifth film, but also saying yes to actually doing it 'cause you said no.

DC: I did, yeah. I just said I can't I mean, I think you got the wrong guy. Thank you, flattering, but I think you've got the wrong guy. Maybe you're auditioning lots of people and you're sort of trying to get a picture of it, but I didn’t realise

Barbara had already made up her mind. You know, if you know Barbara, that means she's made up her mind. It was just odd. It was just kind of and genuinely, you know people used to say oh you must have always wanted to be James Bond. I went well, yeah, kind of as a kid I kind of thought about it. I want to be Spiderman as well, but I just thought it was never going to happen. And I never thought it would come on my radar. I just was like, I don’t know, that’s such an awful lot of pressure and God almighty, that's just going to be such a kind of like a momentous thing. Am I ready? I'm really enjoying what I'm doing. I mean, look, I'm doing Munich, I've got such a kind of as far as I'm concerned a really successful and satisfying career going and why would I want to fuck with that? Why would I want to, you know, mess that up by doing this. I don’t know where my brain was at but I have some good friends and they were just like, I mean literally made a list of--

EB: Pros and cons?

DC: Yeah yeah, pros and cons. And the pros outweighed it. It was one of my closest friends who just said “this doesn't happen to people, just does not happen.” He said “you're gonna just regret this for the rest of your life if you don't do this” and like yeah, sitting in a bar going I could have been Bond. And now it’s just going to be: I was Bond, which is worse!

Again, I kept saying like show me a script, show me a script and I'll make a decision when I get it… The arrogance of myself. And I was sort of expecting it to turn him in to be kind of like this Bond script and I go, yeah, it's not really for me. You know, it's like… but it was Casino Royale and I mean it was just blinding, and when I read the line you know “vodka, martini, shaken or stirred?” “Do I look like I—” and it was written in the script: “Do I look like I give a fuck.” That was the line and you know it was “Do I look like I give a damn” in the movie which works pretty good and as soon as I read that I went oh shit, I mean how can I say no to this? That's exactly what it was doing, was trying to subvert everything, trying to take it on and reinvent it and that's what I was given the opportunity to do by Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, was to come in and just try and reinvent it a bit and try and sort of make it fresh again and that's what we've always tried to achieve with it.

EB: I think that’s what's so wonderful about--I've not seen the new one yet--

DC: Nobody has.

EB: I can't wait to see it but those you know, this is something very very new for this franchise.

DC: You know, I can't wait for you to see it.

EB: There's this brilliant arc for this character across these five films. But you've been so instrumental in that for the whole journey, creating your very specific Bond. How you want to play him, how you see him and it sounds like that was there from the start and maybe part of the selling point for Barbara that she needed you to immerse yourself in the whole thing.

DC: Yeah, I mean it, it's probably easy with hindsight to kind of look back and go yeah, I had a plan. Sort of definitely this sort of duck looking good on top and the legs going underneath, but uhm. I did I wanted to—really  the narrative was important and it was like can we link them in some ways?

Can we you know and I I said I've said this before but you know I said to Barbara and Michael I just said look if you give me kind of a say here like a responsibility, I can come on set and pretend to be James Bond and they did. And I went back to the books and I read Ian Fleming and it's, you know, it's so conflicted in those stories it's like Fleming hated Bond at times and I loved all that I thought that was really interesting. And I thought who is this person? Who is he now really? And I could only approach it from that place. The whole mimicry thing you know, I couldn't mimic anybody. I couldn't come on and be the other guys. They were all brilliant in what they did, they were like individually just so brilliant at what they did, but I was like I can't, I'm not that. I mean clearly, I'm not. So if you let me kind of discover it and we can kind of and I can act it, then--never forgetting it's a Bond movie--I don't want to make it Hamlet, and we didn't. But it it's like it's a Bond film and I knew that and I was a big Bond fan. I mean like Casino I knew it was a good script, when we were making it was going to be a good film but it was in here, wasn't it, the premiere?

EB: Think it was, yeah.

DC: I was sat up there with the queen.

EB: As you do.

DC: As you do. And we got to the opening credits after the fight in the bathroom and everybody burst into applause and shouted, and I was like, Oh my God, it might work.

EB: Wow.

DC: And it was just, it was beyond. It was surreal anyway sitting next to the queen. So it was like you know, and I hadn't had a drink and I was like just sort of shaking and I thought, oh OK, we might make this work, we might make this work. That was an important moment getting that that kind of reaction. It's just huge because it was just suddenly it was like yeah, it's the movies I wanna go and see I wanna go and be in a movie and go yeah, that's great!

DC: Yeah, and that's the thing that from all the films is this wonderful tone that you've you have through them? You know, yes, it's a Bond film, but there's incredible tender moments. The scene in the shower with you and Eva Green, I mean, every time it breaks my heart. Comedy it's just wonderful.

DC: Not a lot of comedy, obviously.

EB: So much great comedy, so much great comedy in there. But I want to know how much you're involved in that side of it with the script side of things and for the new one as well, bringing in someone like Phoebe Waller Bridge on the writing side of things to make sure that there's a strong female voice in there, and that's something that I feel like you’ve had a big part in in.

DC: Well, that's two things I mean one is to have a strong female voice and to make sure that our female characters are… I mean, that's just been desperately trying to get that and we've I think we've achieved this with this film more than the others and we were trying in those films.

But Barbara will tell you I've got a big mouth so I mean she had, you know… Just get the best we can. Phoebe Waller Bridge, please can we get her? She's just brilliant and her gender aside, she's just up there with the best and that kind of is just like you know all I've wanted to do is for everyone you know, we've got, you know, the lighting you were talking about in Spectre is just like beautiful, it's just like you know, all the kind of things like that. They've got to look and sound and feel as the best that we can do.

EB: The documentary is great. I watched that, it's really, really moving. Full proper tears watching that at two particular moments, one with Judi Dench and you just said whilst we were watching that “God, she's great.”

Could you confirm a little story for me if it's true or not that your mum had a picture of her when she played Puck?

DC: Oh on our fridge? Yeah, when she was Puck, swinging at the Peter Brook.

EB: How old were you?

DC: Oh I mean six? Yeah yeah, I mean, you know that kind of just beautiful. I mean, if you ever seen the photograph, it's great. Just her, that face lit up. You know she just glows.

EB: That's gotta be extra special then.

DC: You again, you know, you know, you talk about kind of what do you do when you've got someone like that in the room?

I don't know that whether the first scene was in her apartment with her in Casino, where I'm sort of playing cards and I've just got to be an asshole.

EB: How can you be an asshole to Judi Dench?

DC: I know, I know. She just, again she glows from within and also she is an actress who’s so generous that you kind of you immediately start playing, and that's another lesson you learn from someone like that genius that she is.

EB: And then when you're saying goodbye to your cast and crew.

DC: Yeah, yeah.

EB: And you can, you see and you feel how much it means to you and how much it has meant to you and how much those people mean to you.

DC: Yeah, I mean it was literally, it was the last shot and you know we were in the right place, we were in a dirty back lot in Pinewood, pretending to be in Cuba. It was pissing with rain. It was like it's like, yeah, this is the way it goes and anybody will tell you on a movie, you work really, really hard and the last day inevitably is like “see you bye! See you soon we'll see you.” Everyone wants to get out of there and just kind of just go home. I was gonna, I thought, you know, say goodbye and Barbara came down and then everybody came down, everybody came out the offices and all the heads of department came down, all the riggers came down. I was like oh shit I’m gonna have to make a speech and that's my nightmare.

And I just started talking and I realized looking around, I just realized I've been working with these people, some of them for nearly thirty years 'cause there's a lot of people I just worked with in the film industry and then you know, just and throughout the Bond movies and it's always been about the team, it's just always about the team and you know, Barbara makes an atmosphere on set where we're a family. We've got each other's backs, we look after each other and you do it for each other, and more so on any of the movies. And I don't know, you know, maybe because it was my last one people were just pulling all the stops out just getting it. I mean, you know Mark Tilsley, who designs the sets, some of the sets I’d go on and say “Oh my God, chap-o. Fucking hell look at this, this is amazing.” It’s just like everybody involved and yeah I tried to not tear up, but I'm useless. I mean, I know I'll cry over anything. Andrex commercials, especially.

EB: We’ve still got 15 minutes, I'll try my hardest. Would you like to see a clip from No Time To Die?

Audience: Yes.

EB: Would you?

DC: Yeah, go on then.

EB: Let’s watch a bit of No Time To Die.

[Clip plays]

[Applause]

EB: I know you can't really tell us too much about the film.

DC: No, I can’t

EB: Just go and see it basically. Yeah, I can't wait.

DC: It's coming out, it’s coming out.

EB: What are you gonna miss most about Bond?

DC: Just what I said and just kind Bond movies don't get made very often. And it's very, very rare air we're in to have those resources to have that amount of talent to have all of those things. And I'm just incredibly grateful to have had that chance to be in the mix of that and to have that, and, you know, movies are always a bit of a kick, bollock and scramble. It's always kind you never have enough time. It's always like that, there's always a time limit on Bond movies. There's always this time limit and there's always this like, you know, but people pulling together and creatively just injecting into the film and you know sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't work out quite so well, but it's always about this tremendous effort and team, and I just will miss that most, yeah.

EB: The great thing is, is that we are going to get to watch it not tonight unfortunately, but on, you know, big screens like this, which is, you know, I think.

DC: I know, I know, yeah.

EB: It's so important, but in terms of cinema, what does what does cinema see in films on the big screen mean to you?

DC: I mean the past couple years have just been so kind of weird and you always have to kind of try and keep things in perspective because of that. But a collective, even having you guys out tonight, which is just so--thank you for coming tonight, it’s so lovely to see you all.

You know we're a social animal and cinema is a way for us to collectively experience something and if we can make it good, and our job is to make it as good as it possibly can be, so that you can come in here and disappear somewhere, then--Oh my God, look at you all up there as well—hi!

EB: Yeah, the Queens there.

DC: If it remains relevant and it keeps people excited, it keeps us stop doing this for a while, maybe which is, you know, whatever that is. There's nothing quite like, there's plenty of other things, I love the theatre, I love all this and seeing live music--God, I'm gagging to see some live music--It's just it's important for us. We're defined by our culture, by what we create culturally, and our art. This remains to me one of the most important art forms, and I want to entertain people. I want to be in a cinema screaming at the screen and you know, enjoying that moment.

EB: Thank you, we've got a couple of audience questions actually and we kind of pre-arranged these because of COVID reasons and things and microphones having to be wiped. Manjit. Where’s Manjit? What’s your question please?

Manjit: Big fan.

DC: Nice to see you this evening, thank you.

Manjit: The question was what's been your most challenging part of your acting journey?

DC: I touched upon it a bit sort of like the early days when there's so much rejection and not being able to pay the rent. I mean, it's like you know, you're sort of like trying to sort of get a job just to sort of get by. But even that you know doesn't really play into it. The challenging side is learning to enjoy it for me. I get down on myself a bit about stuff and I love my job, I love my job and and I think as I've got older, I've learned to love it more. And that's kind of, you know, if I can keep doing it for a while longer, I will.

EB: That's awesome. Where's Kara? Hi Kara. Another clean microphone for you. There we go.

Kara: Hi Daniel.

DC: Hi how are you?

Kara: Good, thank you. What is your favorite piece of Bond memorabilia or prop that you've managed to keep from any of the movies?

DC: I get asked this all the time. It's like they think I'm a kleptomaniac.

EB: Could have kept a gadget at least.

DC: They searched me when I leave a Bond set.  I don't keep memorabilia, I kind of purposely don't do it I kind of want to move on and I don't want to look back at that. It's all up here and to have an amazing evening like this and have a look at this like brings back so many memories but I don't, you know, that was then this is now and I want to be doing that. There's some shoes. I got some nice shoes, I keep stuff like that, but but that's about it. They won't let me take a car. Bastards.

EB: Not even a clicky pen or something?

DC: My number six pen.

EB: Where's Alex? Hey Alex.

DC: Hi Alex.

Alex: Hello, so of all the Bond films that you've featured in, which has been your favourite and why?

DC: Listen, it's going to be really hard not to say Casino Royale because that was the one that kicked it all off. I mean, I was talking about this earlier today and someone said what would you say to your younger self before you starred in Casino Royale and I was like nothing, nothing at all because I didn't know anything and that was a nice place to be. I mean, I kind of was green, it was all just happening to me and it was just like, I just sort of let it happen and the more information, the more kind of knowledge I had, the more things got stressful.

I mean, it just means it means a great deal, 'cause like I said that's what I was talking about earlier it kind of it worked and I was amazed.

EB: Thank you and Ben, our last audience question. Hey Ben.

Ben: Thank you, Daniel. Thank you for such a candid conversation. It's been very interesting.

DC: Oh, thank you so it's a pleasure.

B: Well following on such great questions, this feels like a lightweight question. I love gadgets and I was just really intrigued… you said you liked Bond, you liked the franchise before you even got involved in it.

Are there any of the iconic gadgets from the films that really have grabbed you or you really like?

DC: I always loved that box, that I think Sean Connery has. He sort of sticks it, magnetised it to a safe, presses a button, a red light goes on and he opens the door.

I mean, what's wrong with that? It's the best thing!

We haven't had a lot of gadgets in my movies. People always say well where are all the gadgets?

But this movie coming out, we've got quite a few more. So there's some good ones.

EB: Great thank you for your question.

DC: And the DB5 is ultimately there. You can’t really kind of get around that.

EB: What’s next?

DC: Well, I've just finished Knives Out 2. So this is what’s next really. The joy of going out and publicising this and actually getting out there.

Something that we thought we'd never do is happening. And then I'm going to go home.

EB: Are you going to sit and watch it with an audience again?

DC: Well, we’ve got the premiere on Tuesday and that will be the first time.

EB: Finally!

DC: I know, I know, it's amazing.

EB: And lastly, I've got a quick fire round for you.

Favorite Bond film you haven't starred in?

DC: Probably Goldfinger.

EB: Favorite musical?

DC: Jesus!

EB: Well, I know secretly you want to be in a musical. Apparently you want to be in a musical?!

DC: Listen, I wouldn't subject the world to that.

EB: Come on.

DC: I mean, you've no idea how bad my voice is.

I might do the speaky thing. You know, sort of like Henry Higgins speaky thing, but I don't think I can do the full on musical.

EB: You're in Cats.

DC: Shut up. Don't tell them!

EB: I wanted to know who you were!

Mr. Mistoffelees?

EB: Favorite take away?

DC: Thai.

EB: Early bird or night owl?

DC: A 3-year-old, early bird.

EB: Best gig you've ever been to?

DC: Asian Dub Foundation, Shepherds Bush, Empire, 1996

EB: Star Trek or Star Wars?

DC: Neither?

EB: You can’t say that after you've been a Stormtrooper

DC: I've got to keep this shit going. Star Wars!

EB: Who do you want to be the next Bond?

DC: Don't ask that!

You know what, it's not my problem.

EB: Good answer, good answer!

Ladies and gentlemen, the wonderful Daniel Craig, thank you so much.

DC: Can I give you a hug?

EB: Thank you so much and thank you so much as well to our sponsors tonight. Otherwise this would not have been able to happen.

And if we can ask you just to stay in your seats until Daniel and I get off this crane and leave the building.

And after that, thank you so much.

Safe journey home everybody.

Really appreciate you being here Mr Daniel Craig.

DC: Thank you so much.

EB: Thank you Sir.