Daniel Craig: Making Casino Royale 'Classical'
***Warning***: Possible plot spoilers.
In an interview on BBC World Daniel Craig spoke to Tom Brook about playing James Bond, making Casino Royale classical, and more…
‘I haven’t self consciously gone into this to try and update it,’ says Craig of Casino Royale. ‘I wanted to make it classical.’
‘I wouldn’t have gotten involved with this if I couldn’t have found something in this movie that appeals to me emotionally,’ explains Craig.
‘Yes, it is on a grand scale, and I couldn’t be that hypocritical–I love huge movies, I’ve always loved them. As long as something in that movie has a key element of truth in it then it’s going to be a hugely entertaining thing. I think that’s what I aim to do with this. The simple answer is I had to take on this challenge. I would regret this for the rest of my life unless I’d had a go at it.’
When asked how Casino Royale reflects a change in times, Craig answered: ‘The confusion really is who the bad guys are. What’s interesting about the Casino Royale book is you set up this character Le Chiffre, this Machiavellian figure who’s in it for himself. In fact we still have the same character and the enemy is unknown.’
Casino Royale is ‘not political or religious based, there’s no suicide bomber. There’s nobody with religious fervor in this movie. What there is, in fact, is someone who’s trying to de-stabilize the world and take control and they don’t care who they hurt. It’s fantasy and Bond is trying to find the head of that organization and try and stop it. He’s in the fantasy world he’s the secret agent who knows all the answers. Maybe it’s an ‘out there’ fantasy, but I’m trying to put some reality into it.’