Empire UK

You take it as a compliment. Bond is

the daddy of that genre. So there is

a duty for it to be as Daniel says a full

meal. The whole thing. And to do well

by the franchise and to keep pushing.

Craig (to Empire): Are you going to ask

a question?

I was thinking of it at some point.

Mendes: This is the easiest interview

I’ve ever done!

How much notice do you take of

audience feedback?

Mendes: At the end of the day these

movies are a dialogue with the audience

and you have to embrace that. That’s

the fun of it. Bond movies are a part

of the culture and if you don’t go

with that aspect of it and instead try

to keep it all private in a corner you’re

killing it in a way. The trick for us is to

throw it out there but you have to seal

yourself off from the response. It’s

quite a tricky balance.

Craig: Luckily we have people who do

that and that’s good. It stops us from

looking. It’s the enemy of creativity

— that’s what the internet can do. You’ve

got to stay away from it. In the film

business you’ve got to put it out there and

say “This is what it is like it or don’t like

it” but you can’t worry too much about

responses. They used to use focus groups

in Hollywood but in a way the internet

has become the focus group.

Mendes: Whichever way you turn there’s

always someone who has a different

idea particularly with Bond. We were

shooting in Istanbul at the end of Skyfall.

I got out of my car at the hotel and the

doorman said “Mr. Mendes may I say

the Bond movies have got so much better

since Mr. Craig joined. They’re not

trying to be funny all the time. They’re

more serious.” I said “Thank you very

much.” I went inside and the woman

behind the desk said “Welcome Mr.

Mendes may I just say can you put

a few more jokes in the next one?”

This was within 30 seconds!

Craig:I’ve had a few people say

“I prefer Pierce.”

Mendes:To you?

Craig:To my face! Fuck you then!

Last question. Daniel is Sam

a tough boss?

Craig:You’ll be fine. He’s a pain in the

arse — what can I say?

Mendes:Listen I’m editing this so if

I see this and don’t like it I can cut it out.

Craig:It’s gone. “Let’s go with Emma

Watson! She’s much better! She’s on

the cover!”

a way. But in the end that was embraced

as was the iconography of the past.

“Are you sure they’re going to embrace

a young Q?” There was a whole new set

of things we weren’t sure were going

to work on Skyfall but because people

embraced them you use that enthusiasm

and push further.

Craig: I think that “reboot” is a fucking

awful word. From the very beginning

I’ve been “How far can we push this?”

These movies are rare and they should

be brilliant. That’s the only thing that

matters to me. There was also I felt on

this a real hunger among the crew an

excitement about doing it.

Mendes: I love the fact everyone was

wearing their Skyfall caps and T-shirts

on Spectre. That meant a lot to me.

I know it sounds stupid but they weren’t

wearing their Star Wars gear. There was

a sense of pride that they worked on

Skyfall. You watch movies come out like

Spy and Kingsman and they’re all really

good but in a way they feed off Bond.

football game and it was the most boring
sporting event I’ve ever been to.

You’ve never taken him to Anfield
Daniel?
Craig: He doesn’t want to go to Anfield
he’s a fucking Arsenal supporter.
Mendes: I might go to Anfield if the
Gooners were playing there. I’ve
tolerated his choice of football team just
about. I kept trying to persuade him to
bring Steven Gerrard along to the set.
Craig: Yeah he got busy.

Back to Bond. At the end of Skyfall
it was almost like you’d pressed the
reset button.
Mendes: Early on there was pushback
from the studio. “Are you sure you want
to keep going on about the fact Bond is
ageing? Are you sure you want to kill one
of your main characters in the movie?”
The notion of time passing and people
dying that’s never been in a Bond
movie. It’s a kind of endless youth in

Top left: Road To

Perdition’s Michael

Sullivan (Tom Hanks)

John Rooney (Paul

Newman) and Connor

Rooney (Daniel Craig).

Bottom left: Director

Sam Mendes chats

to Newman between

takes on Perdition.

Above: Mendes

and Craig on location

in Mexico City

for Spectre.