Trousers by Stock Vintage, £125.
stockvintagenyc.com>> in Britain, it really fucking matters and we
nailed it.” Craig was the first Bond actor to be
nominated for a Bafta for his role as 007. He
remembered all the Bond movies that came
out when he was growing up as a child. “Even
when they were bad, it was still an event,” he
said. “You still went. For it to be good and for
people to go – fuck yes.”Philip Larkin was a James Bond fan.
In 1981, the poet wrote about
Fleming’s novels for the Times Literary
Supplement. “What strikes one most about
his books today is their unambiguous
archaic decency,” Larkin wrote. “England is
always right; foreigners are always wrong.”
During Craig’s years in the part, the world
and Britain’s place in it have changed. When
Casino Royale was released, Tony Blair was in
Number Ten and Donald Trump was the star
of The Apprentice. The risk of a financial crisis
was minimal. Brexit was not a word. In 2012,
Craig filmed a skit with the Queen for the
opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in
London. Bond and Her Majesty strode through
Buckingham Palace, corgis all around. They
climbed into a helicopter and appeared to par-
achute down over the Olympic Stadium while
the Bond theme tune dang-danged around.
Craig compared the experience to swimming
off a beautiful beach and staring back at the
shore in wonder. “I look around and I go, ‘I
can’t believe I’m here,’” he said. If you watch
the footage now, everything looks so inno-
cent and long ago.
Craig introduced time to the Bond movies.
Before him, the character, and his world,
simply regenerated from film to film. The
padded-leather door to M’s office swung open.
In Craig’s films, which are loosely serialised,
Bond ages and Britain has aged. There is such
thing as doubt. England isn’t always right; for-
eigners aren’t always wrong.
When Casino Royale wrapped, Craig had a
sense of where he thought the overall story
should go. “The biggest ideas are the best,”
he told me. “And the biggest ideas are love
and tragedy and loss. They just are. And that’s
what I instinctively want to aim for.” After the
death of Vesper Lynd, he wanted Bond to shut
down, lose everything and, over the course
of several adventures, gradually find himself
again. “I think we’ve done it with No Time To
Die,” Craig said. “I think we’ve got to this place:
and it was to discover his love, that he could
be in love and that that was OK.”
The challenge has been to reverse-engineer
that long, somewhat complex arc through
speedboat chases, lethal poisonings, explod-
ing hotels, beautiful women, a touch of skiing
and world-destroying maniacs – all under the
pressure of movie-release dates set years in
advance. It hasn’t always worked. Quantum >>DANIEL CRAIG04-20-DanielCriagWithCopy_3481961.indd 165 11/02/2020 16:48
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