Daniel Craig Went Through His Mid-Life Crisis Playing James Bond
James Bond star Daniel Craig was already approaching 40 when he took up the 007 mantle from past actors. When he hit his middle-age years, Craig saw a correlation between his Bond role and a potential mid-life crisis.
Daniel Craig already lived out his mid-life crisis in the James Bond movies
Craig was already close to the age where some people may find themselves in a mid-life crisis. The actor was 38 years old in his first appearance as Bond in Casino Royale. And he was 53-years-old in his last Bond movie No Time to Die. So when the actor first turned 40, he wasn’t worried about having a mid-life crisis. Especially considering he already lived through one as the MI6 agent.
“I mean, I’m having a mid-life crisis as they go,” Craig once said according to Daily Record. “I’m driving around in an Aston Martin and wearing sharp suits and sort of going around with beautiful girls. I’m acting my mid-life crisis in movies.”
Apart from that, Craig added that turning 40 wasn’t as remarkable as he thought it would’ve been.
“I had a good party and enjoyed it. I woke up on my 40th birthday with a hangover. It wasn’t a pretty sight,” he said.
Daniel Craig began to feel like he was too old to play James Bond
As he’d gotten older, Craig’s body wasn’t holding up as well as it used to when it came to doing Bond stunts. The actor was usually more than willing to perform the physical sequences needed for his 007 features. But he admitted that the physicality required for the role could be taxing. So much so that they often resulted in serious injury.
“There was this part where I’d f***ed up my knee halfway through shooting, which curtailed a lot of the serious action stuff,” Craig once told DuJour. “I’m so f***ingg gung ho about wanting to do every stunt I can, I had to ask, ‘What can I do, and what can’t I do?’”
The physical risks of doing stunts have only increased due to Craig’s age. It was one of the reasons why the actor really didn’t see himself portraying Bond after No Time to Die. Now in his 50s, Craig doubted his body would’ve been able to deal with the physical demands of being Bond anymore.
“I still do as many stunts as I can because I enjoy the physicality of it – I always have, even before Bond. But I have grown older and don’t bounce back as well as I did. I’ve hurt myself on every single Bond movie since I started, it’s just par for the course,” Craig once told Candis (via Koimoi).
Daniel Craig tried to talk his way out of being James Bond when first offered the role
Craig was 36 years old when he was first given the opportunity to play Bond. Producer Barbara Broccoli was looking to revamp the Bond movies with a new actor after Pierce Brosnan’s tenure as the character.
“We felt the world has changed and the nature of these films has to change,” Broccoli said in a GQ interview not too long ago. “It wasn’t just recasting the role. It was a new century and a new era. It felt like we had to redefine.”
Broccoli thought Craig would be the perfect face to lead the next generation of Bond. But Craig himself thought otherwise. When he was called to meet with producers for the role, he didn’t even believe the offer was a serious one.
“I was like, ‘This is what they do. They get people in. They’re just feeling around,’” Craig said. “Plus, Pierce was not leaving Bond, right?”
But Broccoli showed Craig she truly wanted the actor on board as the next Bond. Craig, however, gave the producer a few reasons why he wasn’t the right candidate.
“I remember saying to them early on, ‘I can’t do a Sean Connery impression. I can’t be Pierce,’” he said. “I can’t do the kind of ‘Oh, well.…’”
Broccoli wouldn’t let Craig go. After it was officially announced Brosnan was out as Bond, Craig was shown the script for Casino Royale. The movie’s script helped win Craig over.
