Happy Sad Confused - Daniel Craig

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Daniel Craig has gone by many names, most notably in recent years James Bond and Benoit Blanc. He joins Josh to talk about all of it in this very rare extended conversation. Make sure to see Daniel in GLASS ONION on Netflix! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to Josh's youtube channel here! Check out the Happy Sad Confused patreon here! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes of GAME NIGHT, video versions of the podcast, and more! For all of your media headlines remember to subscribe to The Wakeup newsletter here! Thanks to our sponsors! ReelPaper: Head to ReelPaper.com/HAPPYSAD and sign up for a subscription using my code HAPPYSAD at checkout, you’ll automatically get 30% off your first order and FREE SHIPPING! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Today on Happy, Sad, Confused, Daniel Craig, from Bond to Benoit Blanc. Hey, guys, I'm Josh Harrow. It's welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Man, man, we are ending this year with a bang. Some really great guests on the podcast. I am so thrilled and a lot of first timers, whether it's Chris Hemsworth, Adam Sandler, Kate Winslet last week. And now, man, Daniel Craig, been on the list for a while, have not done a ton with Daniel over there. Some stuff, but certainly nothing like this.

This was another one of our great live events at 92 NY, a sold-out crowd. About 800 people cheering on Daniel. They had just seen Glass Onion. This was a special night. Now, first, let me just get out of the way. This is a non-spoiler conversation. So if you have not seen Glass Onion yet, fear not, except, except there is one moment in the first 10, 15 minutes. I do call it out.

I say a little spoiler warning. So just listen up and then skip ahead about two minutes. It's a brief section. It's not going to ruin the movie for you, but there is a little spoiler section. And it comes on relatively early. keep your ears peeled for that. Beyond that, this covers a lot. Beyond the Knives Out movies, which you know I love, Glass Onion, by the way, is on Netflix, December 23rd. You'll be able to check it out for yourself and enjoy. Of course, we dig into James Bond. And he is so

refreshingly candid and open about Bond now. I feel like he is more open than ever, kind of without the weight of the world on his shoulders, frankly. It also helped that this was at the end of the year after the press cycle was over. He really didn't, do a ton of stuff like this. This was kind of the biggest thing I think he did, frankly, for Glass Onion, and I'm very honored to say that. And we also got a chance to dig into tons of aspects of his career, whether it's the influence of his mom on his life, his, you know, his extensive theater resume, early film work, even Tomb Raider, Laircake, Road to Perdition. We touch on a lot of things, the Star Wars role he had. Do you remember that? He played a

storm trooper of all things in the worst awakens. We have a lot of fun talking about that, the Marvel rumors that were circulating in the last year. A lot in this conversation, I think you guys will enjoy a rare extended conversation with Daniel Craig. Other things to mention, you guys know I'm obsessed with Avatar. Yes, I hope you are too. I hope you're enjoying it. I hope you enjoyed it on a big screen where it belongs with the high-deaf 48 frames, the whole three thing. I hope you guys dug it as much as I did. If you haven't checked out the Kate Winslet conversation, please do. I'm working on some other stuff. Hopefully in January, keep your fingers crossed for that. If you also want to check out my interview with Zoe Saldana and Sam

Worthington, that's on MTV News's YouTube page. If you want early info on all the stuff I do here, the access codes, the discount codes, the first announcements, that's Patreon for you. patreon.com slash happy said confused that's where you're going to find all the good stuff and of course if you just want to watch a video version of this and why wouldn't you want to stare at daniel craig for an hour go to youtube.com slash josh harrowitz give us a subscribe you won't be able to miss a thing okay let me take you back now a couple days ago a lovely evening a cold bitter evening but we were staying warm 800 plus bodies having enjoyed a early screening of glass onion and it didn't hurt that we had Daniel Craig in our company. I hope you

guys enjoyed this one as much as I did. Here's me and Daniel Craig. Hello everybody. Good evening, New York. Welcome to a very special happy, say I confused live. I have been privileged to host about a dozen of these this year, 2022, and we We are closing it out in the right way. This is a very special night. I hope you enjoyed your special screening of Glass Onion, guys. How amazing.

I'm obsessed with this movie. You can hate me if you want. I've seen it three times. You're going to watch it three times when it's on Netflix very soon. Don't worry. As I said, we are closing this year out in fine fashion with an amazing guest.

You guys have sold out this amazing space for one man tonight, and we are very grateful for it. It's going to be a special evening. He is an amazing actor on stage and on screen. He goes by many names. He's been known as Mr. James Bond. He is known, of course, as Benoit Blanc. Two movies down, hopefully a dozen more to go.

No pressure. Daniel. Please give a giant New York welcome, a 92 NY welcome to first-time guest on Happy Sagan Fused, Mr. Daniel Craig. It's so nice. Amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much. What a welcome. That's just incredible.

And thank you for staying out. It's getting late. It's good night. It's warm in here. It's cold outside. Right, true. A free movie. They're happy to be here.

Is there a free bar? Daniel, thank you so much for the time tonight. I have a lot of tough questions for you. I can just say to you one sentence, buttress your feelings. Buttrus, I will. This movie is amazing. We get into Glass Onion and many things.

But first of all, we're in New York. Can I call you a New Yorker? Do you consider yourself a New Yorker? Yes. I mean, yeah, it's been 12 years. I mean, it doesn't make me a complete. I mean, yes, I'm a full on New Yorker now. 800 people have embraced you as a New Yorker tonight.

And I'm very happy. But why New York? I mean, obviously, I always say if you love London, you love New York, they are twin cities, there's a kinship there. Why have you made your home here? I came to do a play here a few years ago on Broadway with Hugh Jackman,

and it was always, exactly, he deserves a round of him. He's still doing a play. It's not the same play, but it's still going on downtown. What a run. I know, what a run. And I always sort of had a fantasy of coming to this. amazing city. I'd

been, I visited, I'd played, I'd got into trouble, I'd done all sorts of things and I realized, and I just it was a fantasy and I came with the play and stayed and I never really went home. Yeah, and you've, well we'll get to, I mean, the amazing way you've balanced theater with a very busy

day job, if you can call Bond being the last 15 years of day job, but it's amazing the amount of output you've been able to do on our stages here. It's amazing. Okay, let's talk Glass Onion, first of all, because this is fresh in the minds of this audience. This is a great movie. This is exactly, I don't know.

I was just standing backstage, and the fact that you guys were getting this just makes me so happy. I was just like, really. When the gags land, there's nothing better. You know you have literally the best job playing Ben-Woblanke in the universe. You get every day to act with a different set of amazing actors.

You get to go to the greatest locales in the world. You get to recite Ryan Johnson's amazing writing. You get a fun accent. I mean, what more can you want in a character, Daniel? A hump. I don't know. Some false teeth, maybe. I don't know.

A true actor. A true actor. Listen, I can't believe my luck. I can't believe that I've spent 17 years of my life doing that other thing. which has been glorious and wonderful and all of those things. And for this to fall in my lap, I just couldn't have expected it. And I have Ryan to thank for that and his faith in me. And he showed me the script.

And I laughed, for Knives Out, I read the script and laughed out loud and said, really, are you sure? And he was like, yep, this is it. And here we are. One number two. And there's definitely going to be a third. we know that, and perhaps more, we'll see. We'll see.

And no trepidation, because at that time you were obviously still playing that other character, we may or may not mention, of jumping into another ongoing character. Well, listen, we didn't know. We genuinely didn't know. We had a movie when we were filming in Boston. I think there was a day where we had this little fantasy about where would we go next. I said somewhere warmer. But it was purely fantasy, you just, you don't know.

I mean, and we were all too long in the tooth to make those sort of predictions. You can't expect, I mean, the movie's just, you know, a failure. You don't do another one. That's how it works, apparently. One of the fascinating things about this character and the role that Benoit plays in these films is he's not necessarily the protagonist, really. He really isn't necessarily the hero of these stories, we'll all do respect, sir. You are a hero, to me.

Keep that. Yeah, yeah. Just say more. And it's interesting, we don't know much about his backstory. It's being doled out very small increments. I think that's important, though, don't you think? I feel like with all of those, I mean, you know, watching Peter Eustnoplae, who Hercule primarily, the name wrong, pro ral, French accent is useless.

he sort of appeared from somewhere and solved the case and then went to somewhere and we didn't really know where that was and let the audience and make that imagination and I think that mystery is important he's not the center of attention but is and it's like it's that and I think what Ryan does so brilliantly

is that apart from writing it and directing it and all sorts of other things he casts it so brilliantly and gets these bunch of people who we want to watch, despicable, though they may be. They're glorious and delicious and, you know, just we want to spend time with them. And Benoit's there to sort of, I suppose, wrangle them in some way, you know? Listen to them.

But it's funny, because it is counter to a lot of what I've heard from actors over the years who, like, want to write the backstory and want, like, just extensive. You don't need, you don't need, want that. Way too much to do to figure that out. Tell me what my function is. The accent, it's a nightmare. That's enough, right? Doesn't that say everything?

I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's like, I kind of, you know, he should be an enigma. I don't think we should just don't want to, I don't care what he did it when he was 12 years old. I mean, you know. The adventures of young Ben Walker. People can make it up.

I'm very happy for people to sort of make it up. So it's like, you know, though, but I'm good. One spoiler alert for those that are listening to this podcast now, if you haven't seen the film, watch it before you listen to this. We do see a partner in his life, played by another great actor. I guess my first question is, was his sexuality ever discussed on the first knives out? Was that important? Did it matter?

No, it didn't. It just kind of came about in a very natural way. And then Hugh said yes. I mean, who wouldn't want to live with, you know, him? Whose idea was Hugh? Was it Ryan's? Did you mention? I think it was Ryan's. Yeah, I think it came up. And I was like, if I, you know, he said it mentioned that, I was said, please, if you'll do it, that'd be great. And of course, it was sort of COVID, so, you know,

I don't want to kind of give it away, but we kind of, you know, we had to shoot out, clearly shoot that sequence. I couldn't, you know, he, it was shot on green screen, it was shot all over the place because it was a last minute thing. So, but it works, and he's so good in it. No, it's perfect. He's always brilliant, so. Perfect.

Yeah. Can we talk about the physicality of this character? Because so many of your roles rely on a very unique physicality. Obviously, again, that other character will mention, maybe later, relies on physicality. But every time I watch this movie, one of the times... I hope so. It's available if you need it. Wow.

One of the moments that makes me laugh so much is just you scampering by a pool. Just the way... Scampering. It is a scamper. It is a scamper, you're right. How, is it refreshing to kind of play somebody that isn't as sure of themselves, physically speaking, this time around? Like, what do you...

I used to need notes about this. I'm not sure of myself physically in real life. So all I did in Bond was just like a, like I just close my eyes and hope for the best. I, yes, it's, I'm a huge... I mean, there's a certain bit of... With the costumes, Jenny Egan's costumes, which are just glorious in this movie. And she, yes. She's just, they are just like...

I mean, and I just said to her, I said, to catch a thief and Jack, And she went, yeah, and that's where it kind of started, and I'm a big fan of Jack Chatti, and not that I'd ever get anywhere near to that, but it's just that kind of sort of physicality I enjoy a bit, a little bit of, and certainly, you know, it becomes part of it, and the costume kind of helps. But yeah, I mean, in answer to your question, yes, I like scampering. That was odd work. There's our big headline of the night guys, exclusive. You guys have just seen Glass Onion, but let's take a look back at a scene from Knives Out, one of the many wonderful moments from that film that involves a conversation about a donut. Let's take a look at Knives Out, shall we? It is an immovable fact that I killed Harlan.

Yes, you did, yes, he did, yes, you are, but, but I spoke in the car about the hole at the center of this donut. And what you and Harland did, that fateful night, seems at first glance to fill that hole perfectly. A donut hole in a donut hole. But we must look a little closer. And when we do, we see the donut hole has a hole in its center. It is not a donut hole, but a smaller donut with its own hole. Our donut is not hole at all. Mark, look, I understand that this is amusing for you.

Why was our house? Why would someone hire me? Someone fishing for a crime to reverse the will. But I was hired before the sealed will was red. So yes, the person must have known the contents of the will. But one step further, that same person must have known a crime was committed. And further, if the intent was to reverse Mard's inheritance, they must have known that Marder was responsible.

An intriguing combination of factors. factors. Someone who knew what Marta did, wanted to expose it, but could not reveal how they knew. Friend, she was blackmailing me. She knew what I did. Yeah, but Fran wanted money. Oggo, she did not want the crime exposed. Or there someone in the family had observed Marla doing something suspicious. But they would have had no reason not to speak up. The answer is not so simple. So a lot is made of the accent.

Did you feel out on a whim the first day is on set? Did you feel like this fucking terrified? Jamie Lee Curtis standing in front of me and the rest of these brilliant actors and they're just all in like, come on then. You're just like, okay, here we go. And, you know, yes. But part of the game, isn't it?

That's what I've got to step up and do it. Does the comfort level ever kick in, like that's two movies in? Does it feel like I've got this, and obviously the audience responds to it? It works with a character. To a level, at a certain level, but I just, I was really nervous when we came back to this one, that it was sort of, I'd be doing an impression of that. And I was like, oh, God, that would just be terrible, and it would be like a pastiche of what I'd done. So I just got back to work.

I just, I'm at three months out, I just have a great voice coach, Daniel, who just, basically we just sit and get back into it and just sort of get it back into my body so and then I tend to speak it that vodka is terrible but not belvidier obviously clearly not bad

some terrible awful brand is I speak it on set most of the time and then everybody's speaking it so we're all speaking like Ben Wamp who does the best the second best Ben Wamp Blanc on set. Clearly, thank you. Yes. I covered. Catherine Hahn. The brilliant, brilliant,

Catherine Hahn. A beam of light in the universe. She is a delight. So there's a lot of talk about different films or projects early in your career that could be considered the big break. I feel like I consider Oliver, obviously, your big breakthrough as a child, right? That's what really... Oliver. Yes, God, Jesus. You're amazing. Were you Oliver? My first line on stage, there's no one in there now because I was second policeman.

Oh, pivotal role. Pretty great, actually. And then I think Mr. Sarsbury, which is like I had to sing a song as well, which is for anybody who's heard me singing is like really not very fun. But anyway. Was that the first and last musical?

Have you... No, I then did a musical when I was in a thing called the National Youth Theatre in London when I was... 16, yeah, 16, which was a musical version of night, called Night Shriek, which was a musical version of Macbeth, which was, yeah. But it was so bad, it was great. It was like, it became a bit of a cult hit because it was not good.

Flushed that out of your system, the musical. The thing is, I can't count. I always hear you say that. What does that mean? Well, it's important in music, apparently. I'd have this, you know, I'm singing, I mean, I'm so nervous. It was just like the most, I mean, the most terrified I've ever been. And I had to do this big walk down, and we had an orchestra underneath the stage,

and we had these little monitors back in the day, which these black and white monitors, which were just like this big. And I'd have to sort of walk down. And the conductor would just be like, no! And if I missed it, I'd have to kind of walk around the stage, three or four. four times till I could get back to the same. It was just awful, awful, awful. But it's good to know your limits.

It's good to know your strengths. By now you'd think I'd know them, wouldn't you? In reading about you, I mentioned that your mom was pursuing acting. Like she had an interest in acting. Yeah, she didn't, she only told me this about maybe 10 years ago. She actually got to Rada when she was 18, which was incredible, I mean, back in the day. But she didn't have any money to go, so she couldn't go. But she'd never mention that to me.

She never expressed when you were pursuing it, because, I mean, you would think, that's amazing. What did your parents take the most pride in when your career took off? Was there a moment that you remember them? Be paying my rent? Yeah, I get it, yeah. Were they working about you? They were always incredibly supportive, and I think they saw, I mean, I left school at 16 and my grades would, I mean, I didn't have any grades, so it didn't. I was just a lost cause, but I was very, I wanted to act. So as much as they could give me support, they did. And my mother kind of sort of kicked me out the door, really. I grew up in and around Liverpool, and this is sort of early 80s, and it was incredibly depressed, as like many places were. And there weren't a lot of opportunities. So she said, you've got to go to London. You've got to go and do this,

if this is what you want to go and do. So without, you know, she kind of gently kicked me out. You mentioned National Youth Theatre, which from what I gather was an important part of your development as an actor. You've also talked about how, like, you had a problem, perhaps, with authority as a young man. I don't know what you're talking about. I guess what my question is, how did that jive with, I assume a rigid kind of teaching style Well, no, it wasn't teaching, but what it did was it just

part of being an actor is turning up on time because, you know, you're sitting here waiting, it's not great if someone's late. And it instilled a discipline in me that I wouldn't have gotten very early on a discipline, but also

a collaborative, the collaborative effort that goes into making, doing theater, which I've still to this day, I mean, this is one of the, even now with this movie, it's an ensemble, piece is a really is an ensemble when they say that it often isn't but this really is an ensemble piece and it just about I love the collective effort it's it gives me great joy to work with everybody involved the technician at the crew and the

actors everybody so one of the many ensembles you were a part of I was just looking through the different theater credits we have a photo actually from an early one this is from angels in America I believe my clothes on I was We see the photo from Angels in America, please. It's coming, I feel it. Ah. That's you and I believe Jason Isaacs. Poor old Jason Isaac.

He looks terrified. Was that an important production? Obviously a hugely influential play, a massive undertaking. Yeah, I guess. I mean, I was at the National Theatre in London. I just couldn't believe it. I mean, and doing this amazing play, which is, you know, Tony Krishna's writing isn't half bad.

half bad. So yeah, it was amazing. We did Millennium approaches and then Perestroika, which is two, and we did them together. Sometimes we do it in one day, like nine hours of theatre, which is like kind of quite intense, but amazing. It's just amazing, amazing stuff. In making a stab at a feature film acting career, you do a film called The Power of One with John Avildsen, great filmmaker, directed that one. But it wasn't like a straight shot. It wasn't like that set you off on like an amazing run immediately in film with all due respect, right?

Did you feel like you still had some... I was trying to just keep control of things. I mean in that movie I played a Nazi with a chip on his shoulder which is a career and I remember going to flying out to

LA and I went up for jobs I was doing castings and I was going up for Nazis with chips on their shoulder And I thought, oh God, that's not good, is it? Because that's what I don't ever want to happen. So I left L.A. and didn't stay. And I could have easily just hung out and done that thing that everybody does, I suppose, and eventually got a job or whatever.

And I just was very trying to remain in control of what was going on and came back. Unfortunately, in England there wasn't much of it. I mean, unless it was merchant ivory, there wasn't much of a film industry going on. It was sort of some really great, amazing movies coming out. but they were few and far between. But I wanted to make movies, and that was, so I often went to, I made a movie in Germany,

I made a movie in Hungary, I mean, there were European movies going on, so I wanted to, that's what I wanted to do. This whole kind of thing of coming in and, you know, sitting in a cinema and looking at something 30 feet across, I'd always had the dream of being up there. Yeah. And that, and that, so that drove me, drove me on. made lots of small, very interesting movies, some better than others, but. So, and then when you start to do some of these

larger, quote, Hollywood films, like, is that, you know, is it an exciting moment when you're in something like Tomb Raider? Or is it like, okay, this is a job, this is like, this is what you do to kind of get. It's so hard to kind of, I mean, I had a lot of fun making Tomb Radio, and we'd spent time in Cambodia,

and it was just, you know, I look back at it as a sort of, in a bit of a haze, really. I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, I still don't actually, they're telling the truth. It's all kind of like, just a stab in the dark. But I just was like, I got this opportunity, it was in a big movie.

And the trouble is in the film industry, a lot of people just say, this is gonna be a good one for you. I mean, it's like, so how many times people say that to you? And it just, this is gonna be the one. This is gonna be the one. And it really is, and the way that actually careers work is, is so much to do with what maybe you did 12 months ago,

and somebody sees you, you, a director sees you in something. The Angels in America, a producer called Charlie Paterson who did a thing called Our Friends in the North, which was a big 11-hour series on the BBC. He went to the national to cast, and he saw me there, and I got this part, which went on to something else. So it's never kind of, you know, it's never one thing.

I remember around this time, maybe one of the first films I saw you in, and an important collaboration for you, collaboration for you is in a film called Road Perdition. Right. Sam Mendes, directing. Tom Hanks, the great Paul Newman, of course. I want to show a clip of you with Mr. Paul Newman.

So it's younger and nothing. Let's think we'll get Road to Perdition. Connor, is there something you would like to say about last night? I'd like to apologize for what happened. Especially to you, Paul. Two weeks in a month. What can I say? We lost a good man last night.

You think it's funny? Try again. I'd like to apologize. You would like to apologize? Try again. Gentlemen, my apologies. We're in the same suit. You stole it from the set.

How dare you? I guess if you're going to be dressed down by anybody, it might as well be Paul Newman. No acting required when he... I mean, yeah. Funnily enough, that was a long night. I think that was like 5 o'clock in the morning. And Paul had been up all night, son, he can't, I mean, he just turned it in.

It was, he was very, very, very, very, very special. Did you, I mean, yes, I mean, I don't know if you, folks that haven't seen that documentary, Ethan Hawk did recently about him and his wife, Joanne, amazing. I mean, talk about the combination of movie star, actor, all the right things, a good human being. What do you take away from an experience like that? When you go into a job like that, is it, do you focus just on the work, or do you try to glean something? It's hard when Tom Hanks and Paul Newman is sitting opposite,

you have to say. But you have to get over that. And again, it's that thing of you have to sort of step up to the plate and just get on with it. What I loved about Paul is that we immediately started talking about acting. And as soon as I realized that he was an actor, which I know sounds probably not something

of a bit crazy, but I realized that I could talk to him because it was, he started talking to me about his racing team. And I was like, don't. Can we talk about who? When he was trying to tell me how much indie, the Nd 500 series was better than F1. I was like, if you say so. So, yeah, we can't cover everything, but obviously then there are things like Ware Cake, Munich, which is another extraordinary film, collaboration, yes, for Stephen Spielberg.

You have this amazing career going on, these amazing filmmakers you're working with, and for those reasons, you were a reluctant, James Bond. It is fair to say. Yes, that's fair to say. It's fair to say. It's fair to say. Kicking and screaming. Yeah. It worked out for everybody, clearly. But what was the top of the con list? The pros and the cons. What was your greatest fear going into accepting that role? I suppose it was on the pro and the con list. It was on the pro list. It would change my life. and it was on the converse, it would change my life.

And that really was something that I knew that I had a certain level of anonymity. I could still kind of go out, I could still travel, I could go to an airport, I could do these things, and I knew that that would just sort of disappear. But it was also on the pro list, and it worked out for the best. I mean, that's the thing. I just couldn't, you know, I went, my closest friends, that's who I went to for advice. That's what I did.

And they were just like, you've got to do this. You'll regret this if you don't do this. And that was it. So here we are. So, spoiler alert for those that have not seen no time to die. I'm sure everybody has seen no time to die by now. Yes. James didn't make it.

Sorry, guys. But what an ending. James Bond will return. It's all good. Yes. A James Bond will return, just a different one. You told me, we did a Q&A, I think, after it came out, that that was in the plan for you right from the start.

I don't want to put you on the couch, but what does it say about a new James Bond that, before they've shot, a foot of film says, and here's the thing, I want you to kill me. True. I don't know, you got me. Why was that? I had, oh, God, you know, I knew, again,

I'm a control freak. Listen, I kind of hands up. I just, I've always tried to kind of push my career in the way that I thought was right for myself and that what I needed to do. And it's not that I've had some grand plan, but because, you know, you do the jobs that come, come to you. But in my mind, I felt like, the story is I was driving away from the Berlin Premier with Barbara Brockley in the back of a car. And I couldn't remember how much. I can never remember how many films I'd been contracted to do or what the contract was. How many of these are I doing? She sort of said, four, I think.

And I went, oh, okay. I said, if I do four, can I kill him off at the end? And she went, yeah. And then 17 years later, I reminded her. That's what she said. I felt like for me, selfishly, it was a way of walking away. It was also, I felt like they'd had this amazing opportunity because we did Casino Royale, which was resetting the whole thing, but we went back to that in the beginning of the story

and, you know, reintroduced me. I thought, well, that's what they need to do next time. And I felt like that would be good, the right thing to do. Reset it. And there's no going back, no backsies. When I think back to, when I think back to casino, which was such a great start, directed by Martin Campbell. And there's so many scenes that really humanized

this often larger-than-life character, whether you think of the black-and-white prolog, you think of you in Vesper in the shower, you being tortured, like no bond has ever been tortured before. But that's all in the book, you know, so it's great, you know. But is that part of the, was that part of the ethos, the mandate to you for you and the filmmakers to bring a little bit of reality to kind of make him a little bit

more relatable even as a kind of a super heroic character as he can be, or what? I just, I can't, I'm terrible at impressions. So I knew that I couldn't come in and do something that was something that had been brilliantly done before and that had, and I was, I don't know how I was to do it. I mean, I'm being completely honest. I didn't know any other way of doing it. I felt that we had to, I felt that I wanted to reset everything. I felt that some of the gags had got off.

old and I always desired to bring them back in. I think we managed to do it a little bit, maybe not as much as we could have done, but I think we managed to do it a little bit. And I felt that I wanted to reset everything. I just felt that was otherwise, what was the point? And I said to Barbara and Michael when we first did it, I said, look, if I can have a say, can I have an opinion?

Can I have? And they were like, yeah, you can. And they gave me this sort of free reign to do that. I mean, Martin did a magnificent, What? What? And and and and and and, you know, it was a it was a tone that was set that, um, that we did in the movie.

I don't know. I just was, I had to go for it. That was, that's the simple answer is I had to go for it somehow. I couldn't be what I'd gone before. I had to do something with it. And I was more than happy if it failed to walk away. I was just like, wow, you know, I gave it, I gave it a go. It also seems like it came at such a perfect time in this collaboration.

with the producers that they were willing to take big swings with filmmakers. With all due respect, there have been some amazing filmmakers over the history of Bond, but working with the likes of Mark Forster, Martin Campbell, Sam Mendez, Kari Fukunaga, you guys really went for special. In a week, just, and again, casting. I mean, you know, Sam came in and cast Rafe and Ben and just the actors that came along and did I did it. And I was also, I had this thing, you know, I felt I had a duty, we had all this money.

I mean, it's a lot, I mean, it's really rare air to make those movies. People don't get a chance to make films like that. And I was very aware of that and felt that that was such a privilege. We had to spend it in the right place and we had to get the best people we could. And that's all I ever shouted about was just like, let's get the best if we can, we could afford it, let's do it. And people came and said yes, which was beyond. Do you pay any attention to, I mean, this is going to, you're going to be asked about this every day the rest of your life, who's the next bond, what do you think, who should be the next bond, etc.

Like, today as we sit here, there are all these rumors about Aaron Taylor Johnson, a great actor. Like, do you like, oh, have you even heard that? Is that something like that you... I don't really pay any attention. I just, it's a lot of noise. I mean, I'm not, I don't go on the internet and I don't have a social media account or whatever it's called. So I don't, I'm like... Except for TikTok.

You're huge on TikTok. Massive on TikTok. Apart from my TikTok. So I just, you know, it's what it is. It would be fun to watch just as a... Yeah, of course. I'll be front and center. One of my favorite characters that you've played is, of course,

FN 1824 in Star Wars, the Force of us. Thank you. One of my, very dear to me. Is that what the character was called? Don't protect. You might be. Do you see a future for FM 1824? Is there a spinoff series?

I tried to get into the next two, but it didn't happen. Do you feel like your Star Wars eligibility is up? Can you still play a Jedi if you've played FN1824? It's a good question. I don't know. We could throw it out to the audience. I don't know. Are you even a Star Wars guy?

That was just happenstance? Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. Big time. Yeah, big time. No, I love it. Of course I did. I know. I was so.

I would have asked to be in them if I wasn't being a fan. I've just played around. People have asked me and I've told them, I mean, I would. Ben Dixon, who's an AD on the movie, who's on ADR movies. I was on Pinewood, and I said, Because I was doing fittings, I just said, can I get a part in this? And he went, yeah.

I was like, you can get me apart in this? He said, he went, I'm going to ask, you know, I mean, it was like next day I'm in a fucking suit. The thing is, they do not fit. I mean, it's a terrible story. All I remember is that I had to wear this suit all day. And I couldn't feel my hands at the end of the day. And I thought, God, these poor people have to wear them in the desert.

just like, I mean, kudos to these people. Yeah, you're very lucky that FN-1824. I'd just like saying the name. Yeah, yeah. Did not have to go to Tunisia? You can just do it on a soundstage in London. I could have just like, I would have been awful. But no, no. I wouldn't have done it.

I've got to Tunisia clearly. Fair enough. And his rider, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is the nerd part of the conversation in case you couldn't tell. I'm doing great. How am I doing? Doing great.

I'm not sure how you're going to do with this next one. Okay. Have you ever heard of the character, Balder the brave? No. There was a report, Daniel, that you were going to be in Dr. Strange. I don't believe it, isn't it? Don't you hide behind that mug, Daniel Craig? I think what you're talking about.

In theory, would it be interesting to be in a Marvel movie? I'd take any job. I'm good. If the hours are good, I'd take any job. I mean, of course, it's like, sure, absolutely. Yeah, definitely. Okay. Yeah. He's good. He's too good for me, damn it.

I think we have some questions from the audience. If you guys want to run them out, I'll ask them, because I've run out of important things to ask him. Do you miss, thank you very much. Thank you. Do you, what's the last time you like this? Oh, you go. They're all about FN1824. Okay, right.

It's going to be a long night. Exactly. We're here for two more hours. When's the last time you had to audition? Were you a good auditioner? Terrible. Oh, no. Road to Edition is a prime example.

Sam flew me to Chicago to go and read for him. I would still read today. I have no problem with that. I mean, I think it's kind of important to kind of get to know whether you can do it or not. But he flew me to Chicago, and I did the reading, and he went, stop, stop, stop. He said, the job's yours. It's just like, he just got it. It was so terrible, my reading.

He just couldn't say, he said, it's fine. I know you can do this. It's all right. It's fine. So, you know, I, I don't know. I just, I'm, like, I mean, I never took exams. So I couldn't tell me whether I would have been terrible in exams. But I just kind of get too nervous about these things.

And yet you weren't nervous filming with Taika Waititi recently. Average, can we, can we? Modka, let me tell you. Can we skip. I'm not trying to sell it. But I just, you know. Can we just look at the image from the Belvedere vodka app? Can we skip ahead?

There it is. So how much vodka was consumed to get you to be in that commercial? I was sober for some of it. It was important to be sober for some of it. Is that just a good release that day? I see what day is shooting? How long was it? We did it.

Well, it was one of those things. I've done a few commercials before, and they're usually so quick and you kind of literally spend like three or four hours and then you're going to do a photo shoot and they're going to do this and I said look we're going to do it I need to get I need to I mean I need a choreographer and and I mean I can't really dance I mean probably tell it's a bit's very carefully edited but it's so the brilliant choreographer choreographer called Jekyll Knight who came to my home and we basically danced for two days and just he just loosened me up and got me and then we went and shot it it in Paris on the Pont Neuf. It was amazing, really. And exciting news, Daniel has agreed to do a dance on the way out of this conversation tonight. It would be

not a good way to end the evening. No. You think you want it, you don't. All right, some questions from our wonderful audience. This is from Megan. Hi, Megan. Megan. Hi. You've done some incredible roles on

stage, is there one on your bucket list that you haven't tackled yet? Oh. I mean, I've sort of done a bit of Shakespeare now. I mean, I'd love to do King Lear. So, I don't know, maybe sooner rather than later. I don't know. Yes, King Lear. King Lear.

It's time for Lear. You've got the whole rest of your life to do Lear. Right. I don't know. I've always fancied doing it as going to, I mean, he wasn't, he was sort of my age. Wasn't? And I kind of fancy kind of something. something about that that might be interesting that he's not sort of doddery.

Do it, you know. Anyway, whatever. Lear. Shout out Sam Zimmerman, film student at the University of Florida. Sam shy. What is the most important thing you look for? You left. If he's not dancing, I'm out of here.

What is the most important thing you look for? Hey! God. Sam's back. What's the most important thing you look for? most important thing you look for in a screenplay to decide whether or not you're interested in the project? Is there one intangible thing? Is it good? Goodness. I mean it really, you know, they're rare. I mean, good scripts are very rare. There's some scripts that have

potential and you go, yep, this is good, we can work on this. Most of them aren't good. And, you know, when you get something from Ryan Johnson, which is like, and read it from start to finish and then reread it immediately because it's like so great. It's like that's just, yeah. Elliot wants to know you've worked with such amazing director, Spielberg, Von, Mendez, Fukunaga, et cetera. Do you take lessons from previous collaborators for future ones? You're the best bond, by the way. Thank you.

Elliot underlined best bond. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Elliot. Hello. Do I take that? Every day is, I mean, I know it's a sort of old kind of saying, but going back to school, I try and do that every day on set

because it's, you know, there's always something new to learn. And as soon as I don't want to be cynical about this business, I love it to death. It's given me so much in life personally and everything else. And I just, I don't want to be cynical about it. It's really important, and you've got to kind of just have an open mind. A friend of mine said, an actor called Reese Fins, and someone asked him, what's the most important thing you take to a set, or what does he take to every set?

You went, my sense of humor. And I kind of think that's quite, you have to have a kind of keep things, you know, it's a good job. Yeah. Is there any filmmaker that you chased for Bond that you wished you would? have gotten. A filmmaker? Yeah. I know Danny Boyle was attached. Robert Olten? Can you imagine? Amazing. I mean, that's facetious. No, he wasn't. I mean, he wasn't around. That all he was around, right? Yeah, he would just, he just was. No, I mean, it sort of was a bit always, there's, listen, there's lots of, there's lots of filmmakers. because I'd still love to work with.

Not everybody, it's a huge machine. Not every director wants to do a Bond movie, as much as it may sound like every director of Woodhead. A lot of people are like going to stay away from it, you know. Right. I want to see the Christopher Nolan Bond movie. He's a big Bond fan. He's talked for a while about that.

It might happen. Did you get along with Fincher? He's my spirit of animal. I love that man. I did, of course I did. Yeah, I have lots of last with him. And, yeah, I mean, that was a dream of mine to work with him. So that was, I had a great time, yeah.

This does not have a name, so we can't give you a shout out. But of all the characters you played, who would be the one to be murdered and who would be the one to solve the crime? Show yourself. What was it, sorry, what was it? Of all the characters you played, who would be the one to be murdered and who would be the one to solve the crime in a murder mystery party? That's a challenging one.

That's a, wow, who would be murdered? Who's the most, oh, God, I don't know how to answer that. I mean, in any funny way. I just, I don't know who would be murdered. You have a lot of people that could solve the crime, whether it's Nicolpon, maybe, yeah. How good a detective James Bond is, really, who was like smash the door down. Who did it? It's a very quick movie.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I can answer that very well. That's okay. Did you know the twist in Glass Onion prior to shooting? Well, you have the script. I had the script, yeah. So I was, I mean, I never read them for the twist, though.

And I hope you don't have to kind of, I don't think you need to watch the movie for the twist, although they're there. And, you know, I know kind of this is probably, like people say this all the time, please watch it again. But it really does bear watching a second time because Ryan is such a good writer and so generous. Everything you see pays off. And then there's other layers that are going on underneath. So it's really worth a second look. I believe this is Britt, Brit Jay. Brett?

Britt? Oh, a Brit or Brit? Hi, Brett. Hello. Britt wants to know if James Bond and Benoit Blanc were to meet in real life, what would they think of each other? Oh. That's a sweet question. Yeah.

I think they would share a drink, don't you? They'd share it, they'd have a drink. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think they'd kind of compare notes. notes. Benoit would scamper, Bond would break through a wall.

Certainly, yes. It might arrive in different ways. Exactly. So looking ahead, I know Ryan has said he's starting to write. He's starting to come up with an idea. So he says, yeah, I know. Do you get involved in the process, or do you just wait for the script to come? I don't want to

get, I mean, we discuss things, and he's had some ideas, and I just, I let him go on with it. It's so nice. It's so lovely just to sort of he goes away. I mean, last time we had lockdown, so he couldn't go anywhere. And he just sort of sat and wrote this, so hopefully we can, I can

tie him. He'll go away to some place. I don't know he has a sort of secret hideaway where he goes and sort of writes it down. So I just, I will look forward to reading the script when it comes. I mean, again, the comes full circle on our conversation, the beauty of a character like Benoit, you could conceivably play Benoit like

in your 80s. Like you could play him to the end. I mean, listen, if people are still laughing and liking it, Maybe we will. So, you know, that would be. So when we're back here in 30 years, we're more likely to be talking about the return of Benoit.

We're not going to see Harrison Ford style a return to Bond in 30 years. Never say never again. Another guy said once. Who knows? I don't think so, but, you know, who knows? I mean, God knows what. The future holds for us all. There you go.

As I said, these events are really special. Happy, San Confused Live is really special to do at 92NY. It's been a great year of events. I want to wish this audience happy holidays. You, Daniel, happy holidays. Thank you for having me. And thank you for coming out tonight. Thank you, guys.

Spread the good word. Glass Onion is on Netflix, December 23rd. A couple of days from now, spread the good word of this amazing movie. and give it up one more time for the one and knowing this is Daniel. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused.

Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley and I definitely wasn't pressure to do this by Josh. Hello Fall. I'm Anthony Devaney. And I'm his twin brother, James. We host Raiders of the Lost

Podcast, the Ultimate Movie Podcast, and we are ecstatic to break down late summer and early fall releases. We have Leonardo DiCaprio leading a revolution in one battle after another, Timothy Salome playing power ping pong in Marty Supreme. Let's not forget Emma Stone and Yorgos-Lanthomas's Borgonia. Dwayne Johnson's coming for that Oscar in The Smashing Machine, Spike Lee and Denzel teaming up again. Plus, Daniel Day Lewis's return from retirement. There will be plenty of blockbusters to chat about two. Tron Aries looks exceptional, plus Mortal Kombat 2.

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