Casino Royale's James Bond: From Iconic To Human
***Warning***: Major plot spoilers
JoBlo features a new interview with Casino Royale‘s director Martin Campbell. He speaks on going back to James Bond after a break since 1995’s GoldenEye, dealing with the censors, Daniel Craig as 007, Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd, and much more…
When asked how it felt to return to the Bond series with Casino Royale, Campbell explained: ‘Because it was a book, it felt good. They did offer me another one after GoldenEye but I just didn’t want to repeat myself. It was just another submarine pen but because this was a book, I thought this character was much more interesting perhaps in the book than it becomes in the movie. His liver is in bad shape and he smokes, which Fleming smoked by the way and it finally killed him.’
The way Bond interacts with Solange is very different compared to the relationship he strikes with Vesper Lynd a little later on. ‘The first girl represents the way in which Bond sees women, which is to use them. He’s got to seduce them, have sex with them to get the information that he needs,’ says Campbell.
‘After that when he meets Vesper Lynd, which is virtually like in the book, she is very much his intellectual equal and he falls in love with her. And it’s a very serious relationship. When she finally commits suicide the emotional shutters slam back down. So Vesper Lynd became the most important relationship in his life.’
‘The roughest scenes were the poker scenes,’ answers Campbell when asked what Casino Royale‘s biggest shooting challenge was. ‘They were very difficult because of the ten people all looking at each other across the table. You have to cover everything from the chips going down to close up of cards, to everyone’s reaction. Every time you yell cut, every chip has to go back to square one and mark where you have to pick the game up from.’
CBn earlier reported that minor edits to Casino Royale had to be made because of the torture sequence. Campbell explains: ‘For the British sensors I had to take one cut out in the torture scene, where he puts the rope over his shoulders. They thought it was a little too sexual but the violence they didn’t cut. Now in America, no problem with the torture scene which I was amazed about and I had to reduce the violence and strangling and get to the death quicker. I found that very ironic and I think it proves that nobody really knows anything.’
In conclusion, when asked what aspect of Casino Royale will surprise viewers more than any other, Campbell said: ‘That he is human. I think that all the previous Bond’s, he’s iconic, you can predict what he’s going to do, you know there are going to be action scenes, you know the puns that are going to come in, you know he’s going to get the women, you know that you’re not going to take it more seriously. I think the character is a much more developed character.’
Click here to read the entire JoBlo interview with Martin Campbell on Casino Royale.
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