'When Empire sits down with Daniel Craig in Cannes' Majestic hotel, we comment innocently that, with his grey-flecked beard, he's looking distinctly more 'mature' than when we last saw him on the screen in Casino Royale.
"Because of my beard?" he exlaims, rubbing the face-fuzz. "It makes me look older? Damn!" But thats the only.complaint he has about playing Lord Asriel, the iron willed adventurer who scuffs the line between hero and villain as his quest interweaves with that of the book's young heroine, Lyral After all, Craig is a huge advocate of Philip Pullman's trilogy, and the production also saw him being whisked off to some spectacular locations....
"Thankfully we got some more money out of the studio and put back scenes originally taken out due to budget concerns", he enthuses. "We've shot on a glacier in Switzerland - it's been amazing. It's the best part of my job." Of course much of the work involved acting in a green screen environment with, as Craig describes it,, "A lot of people running across the set with green backs and sort of throwing them across the room." Did it ever bother him having to share every scene with his character's deamon, which would be digitally inserted later? "Well mine's a snow leopard, so I'm alright with it. There was some fantastic footage of one on a David Attenborough programme (Planet Earth). It's a stunning animal. I don't have a problem with that!"
What you could imagine him having a problem with is the fact that he is now contracted to not one, but two massive franchises - he has at least one more Bond movie to fit in. "It's the first time this has happened to me," he says of this sudden flurry of activity. "But it seems silly not to sign up for something I believe in. I believe in Bond, and I believe in this. It's actually worked out quite well; the only thing that got in the way of The Golden Compass was the press tour for Bond. I know I've got a busy time ahead of me, but that's okay. In fact, I'm also doing a small film in South Africa (Flashbacks of a Fool) with a friend of mine, and I'm going to work with Ed Zwick too (on World War Two drama Defiance). I've got work. Got to pay the bills!"
'Daniel Craig - who Kidman says she recommended "as one of the best actors of his generation" after they "clicked" on sci-fi train-wreck The Invasion - didn't require any correspondence from Pullman before signing up. A self proclaimed fan of the books, he says, "I had this dream while reading them that I'd play this part, but it never came up. Then the production was delayed and it worked out perfectly, because I'd just finished Casino Royale. So I rang them up and said, "What's happening with it?""
'When Empire suggests to Craig that, despite being described as a fantasy film, The Golden Compass doesn't look like a fantasy film, he beams. "Great!" he cries. "God, I might use that. Can I write that down?"
Dan Jolin
(Thanks to the D2D forum)
