Licensed to thrill

He is licensed to kill — not so much with silencer-equipped guns but with his piercing light-blue eyes — and to thrill with the trademark fast-paced action scenes that leave you breathless from beginning to end, as they do in Quantum of Solace, the 22nd James Bond movie in the hit franchise that started in 1962 with Dr. No featuring Sean Connery as Agent 007 and Ursula Andress as the Bond Girl rising from the sea like a water goddess in eye-popping bikinis.

Ian Fleming’s creation has come a long, long way, with English actor Daniel Craig, 40, as the newest 007 whose debut in Casino Royale was met with boos, with the press unkindly calling Craig “Bland, James Bland.” One of the best 007 movies, Casino Royale made the critics eat their words (burp!!!) when it earned almost $600 million, making it the highest-grossing Bond film ever. At 5’11", Craig is the shortest Bond (others included Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan).

Directed by Marc Forster (Monsters Ball, The Kite Runner, etc.), Quantum of Solace cost Columbia Pictures (a Sony Pictures Entertainment company, which is part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group) $230 million, filmed in the United Kingdom, Panama, Mexico, Chile, Italy and Austria. The movie continues the high-octane adventures of 007 in Casino Royale as he goes after the killer of Vesper, his lover in Casino Royale, along with a plot about an international fight to control oil.

“He’s like a coiled spring, ready for action,” said Barbara Broccoli, the producer, of Craig whose pre-007 films included Lara Croft, Tomb Raider (with Angelina Jolie) and Road to Perdition. Fleming described Bond as “a blunt instrument.”

Last week, Conversations had a free-wheeling session with Craig (together with director Marc Forster and new Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko, who’s from Ukraine) at a function room of Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.

Excerpts:

You are wearing a sling. What happened?

“Oh, nothing serious. It’s my shoulder...a tear in my shoulder. They had to stitch it. I’m having therapy for it.”

Is it true that you once sliced off your finger?

“What you must have read in the papers — that I sliced my finger off — was not true. I just cut a bit of it...the tip...but it bled a lot so it had to be cauterized. So they had to stop the filming and I heard everybody gasp, ‘Oh my God, he sliced his finger off!’ That was an exaggeration. And then the press blew it up.”

Casino Royale successfully reinvented the James Bond franchise and became the highest-grossing Bond film. With Quantum of Solace, did you feel any challenge to equal, if not surpass, the record of Casino Royale?

“Of course! There always has to be that added challenge. But it’s a very strange thing to happen, too. We tried to put all the right things at the right places. It was great working with a great director who made the movie stylish and polished.”

Can you explain why Quantum of Solace is the title?

“In the story, it says that if a relationship breaks down and it gets to the point when there’s nothing left, when there’s no love in the relationship and when there’s no turning back, Ian Fleming says that the quantum of solace is gone. This movie is not just about vengeance against the bad guys, it’s also about finding peace in life.”

How did Bond change, if it did, your life and career?

“I try not to let it affect my life as much as I can. I like my life even before I started playing Bond and I never wanted it to change. But it has many benefits. I can travel. I have more freedom in my life but I also have many more restrictions about the way I travel. It’s interesting. I’m still getting used to it.”

Have you ever imagined that you would be playing James Bond?

“As a child, yes, I had imagined being James Bond. But I didn’t really give it much thought.”

Were you a James Bond fan?

“As a kid, yes, I was.” (Pausing then adding) “I still am!”

Would you remember the first James Bond movie that you saw?

“At the cinemas, it was Live and Let Die, with Roger Moore as Bond. I liked it so much that I made it a habit to watch all the Bond films.”

You said you haven’t gotten used to being James Bond. Do you mean to say that it hasn’t sunk in yet?

“It hasn’t.” (Adding with a smile) “Maybe when I retire, I’ll think back and say, ‘Oh, I played James Bond once.’ But so far, it hasn’t sunk in yet.”

What sacrifices did you make for James Bond?

“Well, the obvious. I can’t walk around as much as I want to. I can’t go to the bar like I used to, even if I want to. But there are many positive things that have come out of it. Such as traveling with my friends, which I love so much. Oh yes, speaking of sacrifices, I miss my family and my friends so much.”

You perfectly fit the James Bond Ian Fleming describes in his books. How do you make your portrayal different from those of the other Bond actors?

“I read the books. I imbibe what I understood about filmmaking and acting, and I try to do something that isn’t self-consciously different from something that I understood and what the director understood. I don’t want to copy anyone. I want to do my own interpretation.”

How are you similar to James Bond?

“I am completely different from James Bond. There’s no similarity between us at all.”

Nothing about James Bond that you can identify with?

“Well, I like Martini.” (Laughs) “I like lots of Martinis.”

If you’re not like James Bond at all, how did you condition yourself to be like him?

“It’s an acting job. I’m an actor so I have to play the part. I’ve read all the Ian Fleming books and watched the Bond films and I tried to do my own interpretation of the character, something new and something different from the others.”

What aspect of the James Bond character do you admire most?

“I think he has integrity. He’s maybe a little immoral sometimes, making maybe not-so-good decisions, but he’s always after the bad guys and that’s his only goal.”

What about his winning ways with women?

“I think it’s healthy. I think he has a respect for women; he genuinely loves women.”

Have you sustained any other injuries in the course of the shooting?

“I did have minor surgery for minor wounds and scratches but that’s about all. Nothing serious.”

Which scene in Quantum did you find difficult to do?

“I think that the rooftop scene was very hard to do because for two months, I had to keep coming back. Not that I am afraid of heights but who would enjoy standing on edges 50 feet above the ground? The idea was for me to leap from one building to another and for me, that was a leap of faith. I’m tethered, all right, I was attached but it can be very scary.”

How do you maintain your James Bond body which you showed to advantage in the opening scene of Casino Royale? What do you eat, what sort of workout do you do?

“I eat what I want but I work out every day when I’m working...not when I’m not working. When I’m not working, I eat what I like. But when I’m working, I kind of go on a little diet. It’s the attitude.”

Do you meditate to relax?

“Maybe I should be doing that.”

How do you relax...pamper yourself?

“I won’t be doing another Bond movie until next year so I will be taking some time off from, you know, hanging from speeding trains, swinging from ledge to ledge and jumping from one building to another. I love doing the things that I usually do — watch DVDs, you know — and everything else that everybody normally does. When I’m at home, I have to be just like everybody else and I try to keep my family away from show business because they are not part of it.”

Do you watch James Bond movies on DVDs?

“No, not those. I watch other kinds of movies to catch up, you know. Luckily enough, I am a member of the academy in England so I get to watch as many movies as I can.”

What’s your stand on violence in general and violence on the screen?

“Well, I maintain that when we take time out to see movies, we do so for entertainment. So in that perspective and within that world, James Bond is a spy and violence is part of his life. As long as we understand that it’s a fantasy movie, then we know it’s pureentertainment. Obviously, violence in real life has to be separated from art.”

What’s the plus side and the minus side of being James Bond?

“The plus side is, as I’ve said, I get to travel a lot. And I love that. People invite you to private places. The minus side? Yes, the loss of privacy.”

How many more Bond movies are you doing?

“I really don’t know. I signed up to do two more.”

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