Daniel Craig throws off his ‘tetchy’ persona to talk openly about Bond as his time as 007 ends

Published

3 years ago

September 24, 2021

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It’s midday at the Corinthia Hotel in London and I’m sitting on a bench in a corridor waiting to talk to Daniel Craig.

The main entrance doors are open for ventilation. Pre-pandemic there would have been a lot of security, this is Bond after all, but in the age of coronavirus the hotel is like a socially distanced Fort Knox.

There’s a doctor on standby and before I’m allowed in the same room as 007, I’ve had to pass a temperature check – and that isn’t all.

To get into the hotel itself I’ve had to show the results of a negative PCR test taken within the last 48 hours, prove I’d done a lateral flow test this morning AND sign paperwork promising I’m not secretly trying to give everyone at the press junket COVID.

The mask I had with me had to be taken off, only to be replaced by an industrial-looking number that everyone around me was wearing. “It does look a bit like we’ve all got beaks!” one woman commented in the hallway to nods and muffled agreement.

This whole process is very weird and certainly not conducive in terms of making you feel nice and relaxed ahead of interviewing an actor who has a reputation for being notoriously tetchy.

If there are journalists before or after me, I haven’t come into contact with any, so pre-Daniel I settle for a hushed gossip with a woman who may have been a member of security (but really who knows when our faces are covered-up with a giant white beak?).

“Have you met Daniel before?” she said. “No” I say.

“Every time he’s come out here he’s made a point of asking us if we’re all ok, he’s REALLY nice!”

“That’s good to know,” I tell her, adding: “because he’s got a bit of a reputation for being, you know, grumpy.”

But not today.

Just one final hurrah of press interviews and that’s it, Daniel Craig is done.

There’s no way he’s repeating those “he’s so moody” headlines he got after the very first news conference he did.

So it is a seemingly demob happy Craig I’m introduced to, sat alongside super-producer Barbara Broccoli.

No handshakes, of course, and they’re sat well over two metres away from me in the hotel’s well-ventilated ballroom.

But those blue eyes are twinkling, he’s laughing, relaxed even, and happy to chat now the rollercoaster is about to stop.

“I mean, I was definitely in two minds about taking it at the beginning but… I’ve never regretted it,” he says.

“It’s been tough, but it’s always, always, always, always been interesting. It’s always been creatively satisfying. I’ve had the chance to work with just some of the most incredible people and it’s made a mark on my life and, I mean, that’s a massive understatement.”

Broccoli refuses point blank to think who her next Bond will be.

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“I’m in denial. I don’t want to think about it and I’m not going to think about it. As far as I’m concerned Daniel Craig is James Bond. End of story.”

It hasn’t been easy 15 years for Craig, being the leading man in one of Britain’s biggest cultural exports.

Aside from broken legs and twisted ankles, the run-ins with the press were there from day one, with critics saying it was wrong to have a blond Bond.

He’s had paparazzi in trees outside his house, photographers willing to bury themselves under sand to get pictures of him on the beach in his trunks.

He admits, before he met his wife Rachel Weisz, the attention ruined relationships and made him never want to leave the house.

“I think I’ve changed,” he reflects, looking back on it now.

“I’ll be perfectly honest, I couldn’t deal with it but it is part of the nature of the beast, you have to sort of accept it. I think you have to find a level.

“I’ve tried my best not be hypocritical about it. I keep myself away from everything when I’m not promoting a movie. I’m not on social media. I try and keep a very private life. So that’s my sort of that’s my sort of line in the sand, I suppose.”

Has it got any better as he prepares to leave the role?

“The press don’t seem as interested in me anymore,” he laughs. “I’m probably just a bit boring for them.”

So it’s official Daniel Craig isn’t grumpy… he wants to be boring… but then he is a very good actor. And surely that’s all that matters?

Entertainment

Dabney Coleman, actor who starred in Boardwalk Empire and 9 to 5, dies

Published

10 hours ago

May 18, 2024

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Dabney Coleman, actor who starred in Boardwalk Empire and 9 to 5, dies

Lily Tomlin, Morgan Fairchild and Ben Stiller have led tributes to “one-of-a-kind” actor Dabney Coleman following his death aged 92.

Coleman made his career playing comedic villains, mean-spirited bosses and villains in films including 9 to 5 and Tootsie, as well as playing Commodore Louis Kaestner in Boardwalk Empire.

Lily Tomlin, who starred alongside him in 9 To 5 with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, said: “We just loved him.”

In her post to X, the actress shared a photo of her character Violet Newstead dressed in a Snow White costume beside a tense-looking Coleman as her egotistical boss Franklin Hart Jr.

Morgan Fairchild, who starred in Falcon Crest and Friends, described Coleman as a “great one”.

“So very sorry to hear of the death of the wonderful #DabneyColeman”, she wrote on X alongside a black and white photo of them together.

“We went out for a bit in the ’80s and I adored him. This town has lost one of a kind!”

Coleman “took his last earthly breath peacefully and exquisitely” in his Santa Monica home on Thursday, his daughter said in a statement on Friday on behalf of the family.

“My father crafted his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humour that tickled the funny bone of humanity”, she said.

“As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery.”

Ben Stiller, Zoolander and Meet The Parents actor, praised Coleman for paving the way for character actors.

“The great Dabney Coleman literally created, or defined, really – in a uniquely singular way – an archetype as a character actor.

“He was so good at what he did it’s hard to imagine movies and television of the last 40 years without him.”

Coleman starred in a number of films and TV series in the 1960s, then made his breakthrough as a corrupt mayor in the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, in 1976.

His film credits include a computer scientist in WarGames, Tom Hanks’ father in You’ve Got Mail and a chief firefighter in The Towering Inferno.

He won a best actor Golden Globe for The Slap Maxwell Story and an Emmy for best supporting actor in Peter Levin’s 1987 legal drama Sworn To Silence.

Coleman also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the cast of crime drama Boardwalk Empire and received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his starring role in the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill.

Entertainment

Yvette Fielding says she was assaulted by Rolf Harris on Blue Peter and left alone with Jimmy Savile

Published

11 hours ago

May 18, 2024

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Yvette Fielding says she was assaulted by Rolf Harris on Blue Peter and left alone with Jimmy Savile

Blue Peter’s youngest ever presenter has claimed disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris sexually assaulted her when she was a teenage host of the children’s show.

Yvette Fielding, who joined the long-running BBC programme aged 18, told the Sun newspaper how the paedophile predator squeezed and patted her bottom after finding herself alone with him in a TV studio.

The now 55-year-old also recalled an uncomfortable experience with “grotesque” Jimmy Savile, who was later revealed to be one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.

Fielding has questioned the role of the BBC in allowing their behaviour, arguing people in the industry “must have known”.

She became a Blue Peter presenter in 1987 and left five years later, going on to host a string of BBC programmes including The Heaven And Earth Show, The General and City Hospital.

Recounting the incident with Harris, she said: “It was very confusing and shocking – just bizarre to think Rolf Harris was squeezing and patting my bottom and I am standing there, thinking ‘I don’t know what to do’.

“Other people in the industry must have known what he was like and you left me alone in the studio with him.

“That shouldn’t have happened. I must have been 18 or 19.

“I think a lot of them did know.”

Harris was a household favourite for decades before his dramatic downfall after being convicted of a string of indecent assaults against young girls.

Stripped of his honours, he died of neck cancer and old age in May last year, aged 93.

He was also known to be associated with Savile, who managed to conceal his crimes until after his death in 2011.

On her meeting with the late depraved DJ, Fielding told the Sun: “He took my hand and started stroking it. ‘Look into my eyes’, he said, ‘And tell me what you’re thinking’.”

“He was grotesque,” she added.

“I just don’t understand why the BBC allowed him to get away with that for as long as he did.”

Savile worked for much of his career at the BBC presenting programmes including Top Of The Pops and Jim’ll Fix It.

The BBC has been contacted for comment.

Entertainment

Girls Aloud kick off reunion tour dedicated to late bandmate Sarah Harding

Published

17 hours ago

May 18, 2024

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Girls Aloud kick off reunion tour dedicated to late bandmate Sarah Harding

Girls Aloud have taken to the stage for the first gig of their reunion tour with emotional tributes to their late bandmate Sarah Harding.

A 30-minute delay to the show blamed on “Dublin motorway closures”, did nothing to dim the delight of fans when Nadine Coyle, Cheryl, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh appeared on stage, standing on individual podiums singing their 2008 song Untouchable.

The comeback tour has been dedicated to Harding, who was diagnosed with cancer and died in September 2021 aged 39.

During the show, the group performed a duet with Harding, whose vocals to I’ll Stand By You played as they joined in live on-stage.

They later sang one of their biggest hits, The Promise, during which the singers stopped and turned their backs to the audience to watch footage of Harding performing the song on her own.

A post on the official Girls Aloud X account said: “Show 1 done. Dublin you were absolutely INCREDIBLE. What a start to the #TheGirlsAloudShow tour.”

The singers won Popstars: The Rivals in 2002 and formed Girls Aloud, going on to achieve four UK number one singles and a Brit award.

They reunited with new music for their 10th anniversary in 2012, while a second reunion was planned for their 20th anniversary when Harding was diagnosed with cancer.

Less than an hour before their expected arrival at the 3Arena in Dublin, the group issued an updated stage time on X.
It said due to “Dublin motorway closures”, the band would arrive 30 minutes later than expected at 9.15pm.

Ahead of the show, a post on the official Girls Aloud X account said: “Rehearsals? Done. Choreography? Ready. Outfits? Fitted. Girls? Aloud.

“…We’ve been working so hard to make this show special for all of you.”

After two back-to-back opening nights in Dublin’s 3Arena, Girls Aloud will play two concerts at the SSE Arena in Belfast on Monday and Tuesday, before heading to the Manchester AO Arena from Thursday to Saturday.

In November, the group had to add six extra dates to their UK and Ireland 2024 arena tour due to “unprecedented demand” following ticket pre-sales.