By Kevin Sessums

Publication Date: 10/26/2008

Daniel craig is the grittiest of all the great-looking blokes who have played James Bond over the last four decades. He’s also full of contradictions. His working-class background keeps him grounded—and yet he recently was named to the tony International Best-Dressed list. Bond would be amused by such an honor. And so is Craig.

When we meet for afternoon tea in London’s artsy Soho neighborhood, he is casual but sophisticated in a black cashmere sweater, black shirt, and black jeans. Craig’s 2006 movie Casino Royale became the highest-grossing Bond film in history, earning nearly $600 million worldwide. His second effort, Quantum of Solace, due out Nov. 14, picks up where Casino Royale left off.

“The question I keep asking myself while playing the role is, ‘Am I the good guy or just a bad guy who works for the good side?’” he says. “Bond’s role, after all, is that of an assassin when you come down to it. I have never played a role in which someone’s dark side shouldn’t be explored. I don’t think it should be confusing by the end of the movie, but during the movie you should be questioning who he is.”

Playing the world’s most famous spy has, Craig admits, changed his life. “I was at a stage of my career in which things were going pretty well,” he says. “I was making plenty of money, relatively speaking—enough to live on. But when this opportunity came along, I knew it would turn everything upside-down. I’m 40 now. It really helped me put things in perspective. It wasn’t about the money. It was about changing things up and seeing what would happen.” He takes a sip of tea and adds contemplatively, “At some point, life starts to pass you by and becomes about avoidance. I want to stay clear from that situation, because I don’t like that.”
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For Craig, playing Bond seems to be as much an athletic endeavor as an acting challenge. He played rugby as a schoolboy in Liverpool—and talking about that time, he softens. His mother, an art teacher, and his father, who ran a pub, divorced when he was 4 years old. When I ask if his love of performing stems from those early days in his father’s pub, his blue eyes crinkle with joy.

“Oh, you’ve found me out,” he says. “I’ve always loved to dress up a bit and show off. There was also a great theater company in Liverpool called Everyman, where I hung out as a kid. It was one of the major influences on me.”

What would the people who knew him back then say about his becoming a sex symbol? Craig’s raucous laughter is loud enough now to fill any pub back in Liverpool. “If people want to think of me that way, that’s great,” Craig says. “But the truth is, I don’t have a connection with that image.” So, what was he thinking when he posed for the now-famous beefcake photo of Bond emerging from the surf in a Speedo? The shot swept the Internet in 2006, just when he was being introduced as the new 007.
“I was being objectified, but actually that’s not a bad thing to feel,” he says with a laugh. “I knew exactly what was going on when I did that shot. There’s a conscious decision to everything I do. For me to say, ‘Oh, God! I didn’t realize that would happen!’ sounds incredibly naïve. I look at that picture, and my only thought now is that I certainly don’t look like that anymore. For Quantum of Solace, I made a decision that I wanted to get bigger and get muscles, because Bond is older and has probably been training.” It’s unlikely though, that any subtle change in physique will alter his appeal. “As I keep saying, I’m 40 now, and in five years’ time or even less, sex symbol might be a really kind of weird term to attach to myself. How about sexy father figure?” he suggests.

Craig is, in fact, a father. His daughter from an early marriage that ended in divorce is almost as old now as he was when he dropped out of school at age 16 to move to London to pursue an acting career. Would he allow his own child to do such a thing? “No,” is his quick answer. “No. No. No. No.”

sidebar-barbara-bach His mother and sister are two of the most important people in his life. He is still close to his ex-wife. And his longtime girlfriend, Satsuki Mitchell, a movie producer, is another steady presence. All this female energy around him may explain why Craig’s masculinity onscreen is not off-putting but forged instead with a kind of fierce sensitivity.

“There are people on this planet where you go, ‘Oops, no, I don’t even want to look that person in the eye,’” says Craig. “And that real scariness is not something I’m capable of. That’s something maybe De Niro is capable of at his best. But that’s not me. As tough a role as I have to play, I’m always just me. It’s good to be in touch with as much of yourself as possible. Otherwise, you’re a rather one-note performer. Who wants to be the tough guy and nothing else?”

Among his many tough-guy antecedents in Hollywood—Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, James Cagney—with whom does Daniel Craig most identify?

“The obvious choice for me would be Bogart,” he says. “Not only because of that ease he had with his unique take on masculinity, but also—and this is much more important—because he got to sleep with Lauren Bacall.”

I finally ask this British actor a deeply American question: “Who do you think would be the better James Bond—Barack Obama or John McCain?”

Craig doesn’t hesitate. “Obama would be the better Bond because—if he’s true to his word—he’d be willing to quite literally look the enemy in the eye and go toe-to-toe with them. McCain, because of his long service and experience, would probably be a better M,” he adds, mentioning Bond’s boss, played by Dame Judi Dench. “There is, come to think of it, a kind of Judi Dench quality to McCain.”

And who does he think would be the better Bond girl—Michelle Obama or Cindy McCain?

Again Craig’s laughter practically lifts him from his seat. “Oh, now you’ve crossed the line,” he says. “That’s much too dangerous a question. Can’t we go back to talking about Lauren Bacall?”

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