In a few days time, Daniel Craig will reprise his most enigmatic and stylish role. No, not that one.
We mean Detective Benoit Blanc. The Kentucky-fried Poirot became a fan favourite when he first appeared in director Rian Johnson's Knives Out, the critically acclaimed whodunnit from 2019. Such was that film’s success that Netflix was reported to have paid $469 million for streaming rights to two further Benoit Blanc mysteries.
The first of these, Glass Onion, which launches on Netflix on December 23, moves the crime scene from a Massachusetts mansion to a futuristic villa on a Greek island. Craig returns as Blanc, joined by a cast including Kate Hudson, Janelle Monae, Leslie Odom Jr, Edward Norton and Kathryn Hahn.
In November, Esquire sat down with the actor and the director to talk about the challenges of making a sequel, Blanc's eclectic wardrobe and how Craig felt about reprising that accent.
When did the possibility of making a Knives Out sequel become a reality?
Rian Johnson: It was very natural.
Daniel Craig: There was no lightbulb moment of, 'Oh, here we go.' But the success of Knives Out meant that we could then more freely start having a conversation and it was possible to go, 'Okay, well, let's talk about it, because clearly if we want to do it we probably can.'
Was shooting as fun as it looked?
DC: It was as fun as it looked and that's not always a good thing when making movies. You can have a lot of fun on movies and they’re terrible. But because everybody worked so hard and brought so much to the table, we were always in a good place so there was room to laugh. I mean, the laughter sometimes could be intrusive, but he [Rian] laughs a lot. He giggles behind the monitor, so when you get a giggle, you're like, ’Alright, we got that one’.
How does Benoit change in Glass Onion? Did you draw on any further inspirations to move him on?
DC: Not really, no. I want him to remain what he is and be a bit of an enigma. I don't really want to delve into who he is because I don't think that's what the films are about. It's not a character study, I’ve given you plenty of fucking character. That’s enough [Laughs]. Joking aside, he is what he is and this time we see what he is but no more than is necessary. The great thing is Rian writes it and it's there on the page, I don't have to embellish it. I've got all kinds of things I discuss when I'm doing it but I don't really ever want them in the movie.
How was reprising the accent?
DC: It was kind of hard and not hard. I was worried about it. I was really careful, I was thinking, 'Well, God, if it turns into me doing an impression of my impression, it will be a disaster.' But I just started working on it and as soon as I did it came back very quickly.
What was your first reaction to seeing the pinstripe short suit?
DC: It was, 'Yes. And I might wear a yellow neckerchief with it.' That was my little touch. Jenny [Eagan, the costume designer] is a genius, it's one of those overused words but she kind of is.
I had a Jacques Tati thing that I wanted to get in there, that's what the hat is and you don’t see it in the first scene but I'm wearing bright yellow socks, which is a thing with Monsieur Hulot's Holiday. I also just wanted to look like Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief; that's not going to happen but I threw a ball in that general direction.
Apart from Daniel, the film has a new cast. Rian, did you have anyone in mind when you started writing these characters?
RJ: Just this guy [points to DC]. No, I try not to do that. I've learned over a few years of doing this that it's a pathway to heartbreak if you write with someone in mind, because their schedule doesn't work out or something happens. But in this case, I just wrote the characters, and then sat down with Mary Vernieu, our casting director, and talked about who's out there and who wants to work. I mean, even during this little press tour we're doing, looking down the line of faces and seeing who we managed to get…
Daniel, what was your reaction to your new castmates?
DC: Revulsion. No, I had the same feeling [...] when we were standing there [at the London premiere]. It was so, kind of, emotional, the fact that we were all there. With the first one, people came on board, we did it and it was a success, so you can't repeat that. Anytime anybody says ‘Let's make it like the last one’, well, that's not gonna happen so, you have to go in [to the sequel] with an open mind and everybody just jumped in on the same page. Everybody got into it immediately: the tone, the level, the amount of work everybody put in. To make it look as easy as it does, there's so much work that goes into that. Everybody bar none were just on point and without that I don't think it would have worked.
We imagine parallels will be drawn between the characters and real-life examples, can you tell us about the inspirations you drew from?
RJ: I found that if I drew parallels too closely to any specific people it got very boring very quickly. So in a way, I almost had to disconnect and just step back and write much more general characters. But in general, the familiarity, I love that because a big part of the reason for doing these movies is to take the genre and set it very much in the present. I believe if I Agatha Christie were writing today she would have these types in her books. She was writing about people that were very familiar in her contemporary society. So, that's the aim.
There are some brilliant cameos in Glass Onion, did you get every one you were after?
DC: We couldn’t get the Dalai Lama, he was so expensive, and difficult... his rider, I've never seen anything like it!
RJ: The perks, the rider, it’s ludicrous, green M&Ms!... No, [in all seriousness], we got every single person that was at the top of our wish list. We have spoken a bit – I guess it's not a spoiler – about Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim. To have two of our heroes, and I don’t want to play it up too much as it's a small little moment in the movie, they were so generous in taking the time to do it and we're all so so grateful that we were able to have them in the film. I'm a musical theatre nut and a Sondheim fanatic and a fan of Lansbury’s through all of her work so I'm also just so thankful that I got ten minutes with each of them to tell them what their work meant to me. That, to me, is what feels like a real gift.
DC: We've got many wonderful things in the film but this makes it that little bit extra and have real significance because of both of their influences on this genre.
Rian, as this is your first sequel, were there any particular nerves? And Daniel, as someone used to reprising a character how did you feel about doing it again for Benoit?
RJ: I was a bit terrified but then I just dove in. We wanted this to be very different than the first one and for it to have its own reason for being, we didn't want this to be a continuation or a repeat of the first. So that helped because it was just a new challenge, a new movie, a new set of, ‘Oh my God, will this work or won’t it?' and suddenly, the pressure went away.
DC: I treat each project individually. I'm blessed with the fact that I was able to do that [reprise a character] for so many years with Bond, I would always say to myself with Bond that as long as it was feeling exciting and challenging then I would want to keep doing it. With this, it’s the same, each one's a separate entity. I don't think about the last film coming into this, and the fact that [Rian] made them into the standalone stories is very freeing.
Finally, what's your favourite scene in the film?
DC: It's really hard, there's such a disconnect in a way. You should have seen me go, ‘Okay, that's great. I'm really happy about that’ [while filming] and then you see the movie and your perspective changes completely. I can’t even imagine for Rian, as a director, he has to edit the thing and watch the movie 150 times….
RJ: For me, my favourite – and it was in the last one as well – is Blanc putting it together at the end. Daniel prepares so meticulously and he always has, it's usually a 20-minute chunk of him monologuing and he'll have it down, as if he's getting up on stage at the theatre to do it. So, for me, it's an absolute joy because it means trying to design it. We actually work together in terms of how we're going to split it out with the shots to give him big chunks to just ride it through and do it.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is on Netflix from 23 December.
Olivia Blair is Entertainment Editor (Luxury) at Hearst UK, working across ELLE, Esquire and Harper's Bazaar. Olivia covers all things entertainment and has interviewed the likes of Margot Robbie, Emma Stone, Michaela Coel and Ryan Gosling over the years.
