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Daniel Craig Talks Almost Turning Down James Bond, His Successor and Roger Michell in New Interview

During a conversation with Edith Bowman at his BAFTA: Life in Pictures event supported by TCL Mobile, Daniel Craig reflected on his career thus far as his time as James Bond comes to a close with the release of “No Time to Die” on Oct. 8.

During the interview, Craig discussed the long-standing belief that the 2004 crime drama “Layer Cake” was the catalyst for him to play James Bond, saying that he didn’t see it that way at the time while acknowledging that it did elevate his career.

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“They always want to talk about ‘oh, you know ‘Layer Cake,’ it must have been your audition,’ and I was like, ‘believe me, it was the last thing on my mind that I was ever gonna play James Bond at that point,'” Craig said. “It definitely changed, shifted things in a way. People saw me in a different way and ‘oh, you could be a leading man.’ That definitely had an incredibly positive effect on my career.”

When speaking about his time as Bond, Craig reflected on how he almost turned down the role when Barbara Broccoli offered it to him.

“I just said I can’t, I mean; I think you got the wrong guy,” Craig said. “People used to say, ‘Oh you must have always wanted to be James Bond.’ I went well, yeah, as a kid I kind of thought about it. I wanted to be Spiderman as well, but I just thought it was never going to happen.”

But of course, Craig went on to star as Bond in five of the iconic franchise’s films. Craig recalled saying goodbye to the role on the last day on set for “No Time to Die,” saying: “I just realized I’ve been working with these people, some of them for nearly thirty years ’cause there’s a lot of people I just worked with in the film industry… it’s just always about the team and you know, Barbara makes an atmosphere on set where we’re a family.”

In the conversation, Craig also paid tribute to acclaimed director Roger Michell, who died on Wednesday at age 65. Craig and Michell worked together on “The Mother” in 2003 and “Enduring Love” in 2004, and Michell almost directed the Bond film “Quantam of Solace” in 2008.

“Working with Roger was like taking a long warm bath and I think that’s kind of like, you know — he was just delicious,” Craig said.

But when asked who should take over as the next James Bond, Craig kept mum, saying: “Don’t ask that! You know what, it’s not my problem.”

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