Empire UK

SEEING DANIEL CRAIG LAUGH IS

like finding a badger in your back garden.
You know there’s a possibility it could
happen; you just didn’t ever expect
to experience it.
If you judge a man by the movies he
makes you’d be amazed that Craig can
laugh at all. His screen career to date —
whether it’s Bond or The Girl With The
Dragon Tattoo or Enduring Love —
hasn’t exactly been rife with happy-go-
lucky roles. Those icy blue eyes can be
more usually found staring down the
bad guy rather than dancing with mirth.
His James Bond isn’t quip-happy like
a stand-up who also happens to have
a licence to kill. So when Empire sits
down in early July with Craig and Sam
Mendes at the Spectre production HQ at
Pinewood the expectation is that there
won’t be much in the way of chuckles.
Or guffaws. Or giggles.
Wrong. Over the next hour as they
wander down memory lane Craig and
his long-time director and friend (not to
mention our current boss) are wonderful
company: frank fearless and very funny.

So you’re almost done with Spectre.
Mendes: Pretty much. Tomorrow we
shoot a couple of little shots. I can’t
fucking believe it. We’ve actually fucking
finished it. You can’t print lots of swear
words can you?
Craig: Yes they fucking can it’s Empire.
Mendes: Of course they can. Fuck fuck
fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Craig: They always add fucks when
I talk because I sound so street.
Mendes: I need to sound a little more
street so I’m going to say fuck a lot. No
it’s been 128 days which is a long time.
Craig: It’s 128 days tomorrow?
Mendes: The 128th day. On top of that is
90-odd days of second unit as well and
then additional units probably 20 or 30
days as well. It’s been a monster. A monster.

You’re shooting the gunbarrel
sequence tomorrow aren’t you?
Mendes: Who told you that? Well there
was last time too. I probably said this

“You get cranky.

God knows

there’s been

difficult shit

on this movie.”

SAM MENDES

to you last time. I tried to put it in at

thebeginning of the moviebut then

I realised — and I probably should have

known this before — that our first shot

was Bond walking towards the camera

with a gun raised.

Craig: I’d forgotten about that.

Mendes: So you followed the gunbarrel

with a shot of Bond with his gun raised.

I couldn’t use it. It looked like we’d just

seen it. So I put it at the end even though

I remember as a kid it was one of the

best bits. It was like Christmas Eve

— this is actually about to happen! This

is it the Bond movie’s about to start. It’s

a great feeling. I really wanted to put it

in the last one. I definitely think I’ll try

to put it in this time.

Craig: For Christ’s sake Sam

don’t commit.

This is your third film together and

your second Bond. How has your

working relationship evolved?

Mendes: We’ve got a shorthand going.