Photo: Vivien Killilea/Getty
James Bond will be back, butDaniel Craighas moved on.
The actor, 54, whose run in five 007 movies spanned 2006’sCasino Royaleto 2021’sNo Time to Die, says he’s not exactly mourning his exit from the iconic role.
In a new interview with theLos Angeles Times, theKnives Outstar admits he bowed out from Bondfor multiple reasons.
“Two things, one for myself and one for the franchise,” Craig said. “One, for the franchise, was that resets start again, which [the franchise] did with me. And I was like, ‘Well, you need to reset again.’ So let’s kill my character off and go find another Bond and go find another story. Start at [age] 23, start at 25, start at 30.”
Craig continued, “The other was so that I could move on. I don’t want to go back. I suppose I should be so lucky if they were to ask me back, but the fact is I need to move on from it. The sacrifice that he makes in the movie was for love and there’s no greater sacrifice. So it seemed like a good thing to end on.”
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“It’s my fault because I kind of didn’t shut up about the fact that I had all these injuries,” Craig told theLos Angeles Times. “I’m pissed off at myself that I ever even spoke about them. I put way more work into the creative side of those movies than I did into the physical side of those movies.
He added, “The physical side of the movies was just the job. I had to do it. I trained, learned the fights, that’s kind of my brain not working. The rest of it, the look, the feel, the kind of the temperature of the movies, getting Sam Mendes in to directSkyfall, that’s where the hard work was. Going to the gym is hard work, but it’s not really brain hard work.”
Now, Craig is on track to portray another memorable character multiple times, revisiting his Southern detective Benoit Blanc from 2019’sKnives Outin the movie’s sequel,Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which hits theaters Nov. 23 for one week before streaming on Netflix starting Dec. 23.
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The break from Bond has also afforded the actor more time with his wife, actressRachel Weisz, 52, and their children. In addition to Craig’s daughter Ella Loudon — whom he shares with ex Fiona Loudon — he is also dad to a 4-year-old daughter with Weisz, who also has a 16-year-old son, Henry, with directorDarren Aronofsky.
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“I’m very, very fortunate as an actor to have got to a stage in my career where I can now go, ‘You know what? I’m gonna pick and choose,'” Craig said. “I have a family that I need to be with most of the time, until they hate me, and then I can go away and do some work. That’s more important to me right now.”
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mysteryhits theaters Nov. 23 for one week before streaming on Netflix beginning Dec. 23.
source: people.com
