The newest James Bond speaks to DVDetails

By: The Dude, Major Issue

To coincide with the release of Casino Royale on DVD, the newest James Bond, Daniel Craig paid a visit to the DVDetails bunker and had a martini, shaken not stirred with The Dude and Major Issues.

MAJOR ISSUE: Now listen here soldier. What concerns me to high heaven about your role as James Bond is your inability to snap the enemy’s neck in a heartbeat without remorse, without guilt. Do you not realise that sort of hesitation gives your adversaries the upper hand in combat!

DANIEL CRAIG: Yes and that was a desire of mine. I wanted us to question him. Is he right to do this stuff? For me I always want to try to figure something out and to try to figure someone's motives out. I wanted the audience to have to think about that, about why he does what he does

MAJOR ISSUE: Turning Bond into a lady’s blouse is what you’re doing man! What do think, the world of international espionage is for cream puffs still attached to their momma’s apron strings. Do you think this is meant to be fun, soldier?

DANIEL CRAIG: Oh yes, it is fun. There are moments of pain and misery and you are thinking 'I can't do this! I really can't' but plenty of others when I think 'this is great!'

MAJOR ISSUES: Fun? Great? Drop and give me 20 you lackluster steamin’ pile of maggots. I swear I’m gonna make you run until I see what you had for Christmas lunch.

THE DUDE: Chill out, bro. Leave the guy alone, yeah. Show some respect. Thanks to this here Bond movie, Daniel Craig here is living life higher than Ben Cousins on a bender.

DANIEL CRAIG: The truth of it is this whole experience has got to have an element of fun to it. It's been difficult at times - the thing with the press, the hard work and the whole thing going on - but the experience has been wonderful. Shooting in the Bahamas it's very glamorous and it's been very nice but actually shooting a movie anywhere is very difficult - it can be in the Bahamas, it can be in Iceland - wherever it is it's shooting a movie. And I've had to make sure that I've got as much enjoyment out of it as possible because that's the reason I did it. Because when I made the decision I went 'OK, if I'm going to do it, I'm all in. All in.' You have to commit.

MAJOR ISSUES: You wouldn’t know what commitment was if it crawled into your bunk at night and blew in your ear.

THE DUDE: Dude, the guy’s got a chest you could cut granite on. He’s done the hard work, bro. So Craig Daniel, not that The Dude needs any help in the physique department, but what was your gym routine like?

DANIEL CRAIG: Hard work but essential. And if I hadn't been fit I wouldn't have survived. I'm desperate to try and do as much as I can stunt wise in this movie. I mean, there is stuff that I just don't have the skills to do, that's the bare honest truth of it.

MAJOR ISSUE: I was ordered to do this interview, but there is no way in hell I’m gonna sit in while you two queers get acquainted and pick out curtains. I am dis-missed.

THE DUDE: Forget him bro. I damn woulda wet my pants if I looked up and found myself in the middle of a Bond movie. 

DANIEL CRAIG: Oh of course. Actually, being on the 00 stage at Pinewood there were lots of times when that happened. Chris Corbould, our special effects guy, has done this amazing set that sinks into water and it's fantastic and working on that you say to yourself 'this is a real moment..' And there have been plenty of moments scattered throughout. Like the times when I've been driving the (Aston Martin) DBS around. That model isn't even out until next year and it's incredible.

THE DUDE: Any little boy worth his weight in gummy bears has pretended to be James Bond, especially when they’re wearing a tux on account they’re the pageboy at their mum’s sixth wedding. I know I scuffed the knees outta three or four penguin suits fulfilling my boyhood 00-duties.

DANIEL CRAIG: Listen, when I was a kid we lived near the seaside and my days were spent at the beach, every single summer, all day every day, playing either James Bond or something on the beach. We used to pretend to fight, we would throw each other off sand dunes and fall about the place and do all of that. And I'm doing that now, when you think about it (laughs). So it's great.

THE DUDE: Now, on account of the fact The Dude was still crying over the ball-tearing torture scene, I confess I missed the whole love story shenanigans at the end of the movie. And even though some fella filled me in on the basics, I was unwilling to agree that Bond could ever get sucked in by some tail. Give it to me straight Craig Daniel. In a word, does Bond say the ‘L’ word?

DANIEL CRAIG: Yes.

THE DUDE: Ho-ly romantic comedy!

DANIEL CRAIG: What was appealing to me was with the character of Vesper - who is played by Eva Green and she's done such a great job - you have this woman that you can believe, I think, that James Bond would fall in love with. And therefore you can believe anything then. And that's what we've never really seen him do. And it's someone who changes the way he looks at the world. When we meet him he's all the things that Bond is; he's selfish, he's an egomaniac, all the things that drive him on, I mean, he can't do his job without being single minded and this woman just knocks him for six. And that I find very interesting.

THE DUDE: Okay. Before the universe as we know it collapses in on itself on account of Bond going loopy, restore order to life man, please.

DANIEL CRAIG: Let's not beat about the bush over this, it's a franchise that has been built on huge action sequences, beautiful girls and fast cars. And it goes without saying that we've got all of that. There would be no point in tackling this if that wasn't in place and it is in place.

THE DUDE: Now man, it seems to me that no one in their right mind would mess with the mighty James Bond. At least that’s what The Dude has deduced. What with all his cool gadgets and what.

DANIEL CRAIG: That's a part of the movie but it doesn't dominate it. But what is very important in this is the lack of CGI. The CGI in this movie will be there to enhance as opposed to tell the story.

THE DUDE: Now, we're all about DVDs here in Dvdetails bunker DC, so give it to me straight, big fella. Have you got any of the Bond back catalogue in your home collection?

DANIEL CRAIG: Look I've got the box set and I watch them religiously. I have to. Not because I can answer questions at press conferences when someone says 'in Man With A Golden Gun in scene 54…' although if you want to test me …(laughs). But you know, for tips. Some of those are great movies. I just wanted to go through them and there was stuff that Sean (Connery) did and stuff that Roger (Moore) did and all the people did that were their little keys and you go 'oh that's cute, the way they did that.' Not something conscious to deliberately do, but just to have a mental note of it that when you are doing stuff that there is continuity to things.

THE DUDE: Respect.