Connery Sweated, Moore Perspired, Brosnan Glowed, And Craig Bleeds
The Sunday Mirror features a new article where members of the Casino Royale crew were interviewed and named Daniel Craig as the toughest James Bond yet…
Stunt co-ordinator Gary Powell, said: ‘Daniel really took some hits on Casino Royale. I’d see him bruised and cut up, fight after fight. And he’d just say: “Oh s–t, that smarted a bit, let’s go again.”‘
‘Pierce was a lovely man. But he’d always emerge from a punchup or a huge explosion with an unruffled tie and immaculate hair. Someone told me recently: “Sean Connery sweated, Roger Moore perspired and Pierce Brosnan glowed.” I don’t agree but I’ll add one thing – Daniel Craig bleeds. He did everything we asked of him and more.’
‘”[Craig] said to me, ‘Whatever you think I can handle, let me do it’. There’s no ego there but he’s up for anything. The chase along the crane was especially tough–running about 140ft up is not for the faint-hearted,’ says Powell.
‘And the underwater sequence at the end of the movie was impossibly hard,’ adds Powell. ‘With thousands of tons of water being thrown about, you might as well be running a marathon every day. I had to draw the line when we had to roll the Aston Martin though. I’m sure Daniel would have been keen to have given it a crack. But that stunt was superdangerous. We wrecked three BMW 5-Series and two £150,000 Aston Martins in the process but our driver managed to beat Top Gear’s record for rolling a car–seven times to their five.’
Casino Royale armourer Joss Skottowe said of Craig: ‘He came in hating guns but left rather keen. I’ve yet to meet a man who doesn’t relish holding a Walther PPK. And Daniel is more man than most. We use real guns in the movie, even though they’ve been adapted to fire blanks. But blanks can still hurt or even kill you.’
Scuba specialist Dave Shaw, who also worked on The World Is Not Enough, called Craig ‘my favourite Bond to work with. Yes, he’ll do whatever it takes but he’s also very safety-conscious.’
‘Daniel really threw himself into training,’ he said. ‘Scuba is a dangerous sport. We were having to film six metres under water and even three metres can kill you. If you surface too quickly, you can burst a lung.’
‘Daniel was having to hold his breath for up to a minute–he must have swallowed pints of water but he never whinged. And acting underwater is tough–you can’t see, you can’t hear,’ said Shaw.
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