'The general consensus was, 'You'd be a fool not to!''īut if he was going to take it, he wanted to play Bond his way – a darker and more sober 007 than the heavyweights who came before … men who insisted on their martinis shaken, not stirred. 'But you changed your mind?' asked Mankiewicz. As a kid, you walked into a space and they were gonna turn the lights out, and something magic was gonna happen.' There's sort of, if I have a church, this is it.
He started on the stage, but from an early age, he was drawn to the big screen: 'I still feel these are slightly sacred places.
'I'm a little bit bemused, to tell you the truth,' Craig replied, 'because it felt, it genuinely feels like I started doing this yesterday.' Daniel Craig, star of 'No Time to Die,' with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz.Ĭraig's mother, an art teacher, encouraged her son to follow his dream of becoming an actor. Mankiewicz asked, 'As an artist, what does that feel like?' Just before the pandemic, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City celebrated Craig's career with a retrospective of his work, including the films 'The Mother,' 'Enduring Love,' 'Munich,' 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,' and 'Knives Out,' in addition to 'Casino Royale' and 'Skyfall.' Nineteen years later, his seat is secure, and then some.