“I would sort of yearn [for] the person I was when I did ‘Casino.’ Too much knowledge sometimes is not a good thing. I was sort of in the dark about a lot of things, about how things worked, the mechanics of it, how the world really viewed Bond — all of those things. I just didn’t understand them,” he said. “Then I started to understand them, the weight of it sort of bore down. The trouble with [‘Quantum of Solace’], it was a bit of a shit-show, to say the least, the full weight of it was there I kind of think that made me probably lock up. Thankfully, for me, it’s been about loosening it and loosening it and trying to get back to that feeling of ‘Casino,’ which was ‘It’s James Bond, come on, enjoy yourself. Let’s have a good time.’”
As for 2006’s “Casino Royale” however, his first entry in to the Bond universe, Craig said he has nothing but fond memories. “I remember [shooting ‘Casino Royale‘] with massive fondness. And all this other shit was going on around it, which was meaningless at the time because I knew we had a good film, I knew ‘Casino’ was good. You kind of go, ‘Wait and see, it’s going to be great, don’t worry,’” he said. Craig also expressed gratitude for the fact that MGM and international distributor Universal didn’t dump Cary Fukunaga’s “No Time to Die” on streaming platforms, but instead waited for a proper theatrical release. “Thankfully, [MGM and Universal] were incredibly brave and said ‘We want to put this in the cinemas, let’s wait.’ Cause I’m sure the rumors going around were it could get streamed, it could get sold to a streaming service, and that would be… That felt wrong,” Craig said. Read IndieWire’s review of “No Time to Die” here. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
