Daniel Craig: Life After 007

Daniel Craig felt the weight of the world when he took on the role of 007, but he flipped the script and made the character — and the status quo — his own

Shortly before midnight, on a damp friday last October, Daniel Craig shot his last scene as James Bond. It was a chase sequence, outside, on the outdoor area of Pinewood Studios near London. The set was a Havana streetscape – Cadillacs and neon. The scene would’ve been filmed in the Caribbean in the spring, if Craig hadn’t ruptured his ankle ligaments and had to undergo surgery. He was 37 and blonde when he was cast as the world’s most famous spy in 2005. He’s 51 now, his hair is dirty grey, and he feels twinges of arthritis. ‘You get tighter and tighter,’ Craig told me recently. ‘And then you just don’t bounce.’

So there he was, being chased down a faked-up Cuban alleyway in England on a dank autumnal night. He was being paid $25 million (around R375 million). It was what it was. Every Bond shoot is its own version of chaos, and the making of No Time To Die, Craig’s fifth and final film in the role, which will be released in April, was no different. The first director, Danny Boyle, quit. Craig got injured. A set exploded. ‘It feels like how the fuck are we going to do this?’ Craig said.