Daniel Craig has played James Bond for nearly a decade and a half. And while he doesn’t seem to have loved every minute of the experience—he infamously said after shooting Spectre that he’d rather “slash [his] wrists” than make another Bond movie—he’s now played the iconic role longer than any other actor in history. (That is, if we’re not counting Sean Connery’s 1983 “unofficial" 007 turn in Never Say Never Again.) And in an interview with Empire Magazine, Craig revealed just what line from Casino Royale made him certain that he wanted to play James Bond in the first place.
"One of the biggest reasons I did Casino Royale is the line, ‘A vodka martini, please.’ ‘Shaken or stirred?’ My reply was written in the script as, ‘Do I look like I give a fuck?’ And that’s it,” Craig told Empire. "That’s the reason I did it. Because what I could not do, and what I refused to do, was repeat what had gone before. What was the fucking point? So I’d rather have just one and gone, ‘Okay, swing and a miss. There you go. Tried my best.’"
And his best is pretty damn good—Craig is now often ranked among the best actors ever to play the role. Still, No Time To Die seems to be the end of the line, as Craig has officially confirmed that it will be his last Bond movie.
After a troubled production the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed No Time To Die is set to be released in April. Returning alongside Craig are Bond veterans Jeffrey Wright, Naomie Harris, Christoph Waltz, and Lea Seydoux, as well as newcomers Lashana Lynch and Rami Malek as the mysterious villain Safin.
Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. She's based (and born and raised) in Brooklyn, New York.
