How Daniel Craig cost Mark Strong a role as a James Bond villain: “I got pissed”
The process of auditioning is often harsh and rather terrifying, with one scene in La La Land perfectly capturing the madness of crying your eyes out on command in a clinical room while casting directors barely blink in your direction, perhaps too distracted by the thought of what they’ll have for lunch or a completely non-pressing email notification. You might learn all your lines only to find that they just want to hear one word, or you might try an entirely different accent only to hear that aspect of the script has been rewritten.
But even the most coveted actors still have to audition, even if they have a vast collection of previous roles to prove they can rise to the occasion. It mostly becomes a matter of chemistry and whether your vision clicks with the directors, leading those at the top of their game to go through a gruelling process associated with those who are just starting out. While it can be an affirming experience for some, it was a humbling process for one actor after messing up his audition and being accidentally sabotaged by Daniel Craig.
Craig is perhaps most synonymous with his role as James Bond, despite expanding his career into exciting new territories after his role in Queer and the Knives Out series. While he might be showing off new sides to his artistic identity, he is perhaps regarded as the greatest James Bond of all time, creating an effortlessly suave and witty version of the secret agent that captures the true essence of ‘cool’ at the heart of the franchise.
Throughout his time as the character, he starred alongside many other great actors who joined the series to play villains and arch enemies of Bond, whether it be Mads Mikkelsen or Rami Malek. However, there was one actor who didn’t quite get the chance to fulfil this fantasy, with Mark Strong ruining his audition after a very boozy night spent with none other than Craig himself.
When describing this, Strong said, “And I learned the lines … and to celebrate I went out for a drink, and I got pissed. I overdid it, and the next day I was severely hungover. I started, then I just forgot my lines, couldn’t remember what they were, and they all just kind of fell apart.”
Adding, “I was sweating, it was a terrible experience — but I really learned from it. The irony was, the guy I was out the night before getting pissed with was Daniel Craig. So I blame him!”
While Strong might not have gotten the chance to act alongside Craig, he at least got a brief taste of what this experience might have looked like. Perhaps Craig had some juicy insights about the story that sufficiently quenched his thirst for this kind of adventure, or perhaps he had heard just how difficult it was to star in the films after Craig detailed all the bones he had broken from each stunt. Either way, it seems like it just wasn’t meant to be.
