I am an actor first then Bond: Daniel Craig

Believing in essaying strong characters in lively scripts, actor Daniel Craig tells Prithwish Ganguly how he lays a geat deal of stress on being versatile

Apart from doing Bond films, you are also starring in other films in diverse genres. Is it like being versatile?
I am an actor first then James Bond and even the Bond is a creative character which has been kept alive with some outstanding acting, lively scripts and extraordinary directions.

So if I wasn’t a Bond, I was already an actor. An actor has to have versatility. It is this versatility that has helped me bag the role of James Bond. Tell me, when I wasn’t James Bond,  then who was I? I was Daniel, Daniel the actor. So that is one tag, I would never want to lose. Having the tag of Bond is an honour but not at the stake of losing Daniel Craig.

What attracts you to sign a film?
A nice script of course, but also my character in the film has to be important for me to take on the role. Then it also depends on how nicely the script has been narrated. And the director matters a lot.
 
Who/what has been your biggest inspiration?  
Well, Sean (Connery) has been my all time idol and I am lucky that I am playing  Bond, a character I used to watch on television. His Dr No and From Russia With Love are movies that I admire the most. Those were the massive blockbusters of their time and even today when you watch those films, you know how competitive cinema of an age relatively deprived of  technology or skills can be.

If you weren’t an actor, what would you have been?
I don’t really know, in fact no one really knows such things. I had been an acting freak since my childhood and that is why I joined National Youth Theatre, at the age of 16. Later, impelled by this craze, I secured a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from where I did my grads in 91. But perhaps I would have been a rugby player, because I played a lot of rugby during my high school.

What does Craig love to do when he isn’t acting?
I am a workaholic and can work anytime of the day or night. So when I am not acting, I am thinking of how better the shots could have been or could be. I rest, but my mind doesn’t. It is always active and thinking of the best performance. And when talking of real leisure times, first of all I don’t get that leisure time. And even if I do, more than half of the time is gone in planning out my several projects. But what little time I have, I just chill and rest sleep.
g_prithwish@dnaindia.net