“We can’t do it”: the James Bond scene that set off Daniel Craig’s ‘Austin Powers’ alarm
At the turn of the millennium, James Bond was increasingly starting to feel like a man out of time as a new generation of cinematic spies emerged, but Austin Powers didn’t help matters either.
Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, and Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer epitomised the new generation of secret agents and enigmatic operatives. Each of them adopted a more grounded, gritty, and tangible approach than the girls-and-gadgets formula that had served 007 so well.
Pierce Brosnan’s tenure had gotten off to a stellar start with 1995’s GoldenEye, but by the end of his stint under the tux, he was only a couple of steps away from the worst of Roger Moore. Landing right in the middle of his run was Mike Myers’ shagadelic creation, which was both a blessing and a curse.
The first Austin Powers movie might have been a loving ode and endearing spoof of spycraft, but it was hardly beneficial that the comedy trilogy gained such cultural popularity at the exact same time Brosnan’s time as Bond was suffering from the law of diminishing returns.
By the time Die Another Day released in 2002, it was clear that the franchise was in need of an overhaul. The following year, Myers rounded out his trilogy with Goldmember, leaving everyone involved with the next 007 reboot convinced that the best way to rehabilitate the brand was to veer as far away from Austin Powers as possible.
Casino Royale definitely did that, stripping Bond back to basics and establishing Daniel Craig as a leaner, meaner, and much more straight-laced interpretation of the character than any of his predecessors. However, the ghost of the bespectacled and cravat-wearing caricature was always at the forefront of the actor’s thinking, which even caused one scene to be reshot when his alarm started ringing.
“I had an Austin Powers alarm,” Craig admitted to David Sheff. “On set, I’d say, ‘That’s Austin Powers. We can’t do it’. There is a chance sequence in the beginning of Casino Royale. I run through a room past ten workers who are sawing planks. These guys had to look as though they were working; they couldn’t just look like guys banging nails.”
Upon watching the playback – which featured the assembled nail hammerers stopping what they were doing and looking up to react to a nearby explosion – Craig didn’t care for what he saw. “We had to go back to the choreography and make it real,” he admitted. “Because, at first, it looked like Austin Powers.”
Needless to say, the looming presence of Austin Powers didn’t make itself felt across Craig’s five-film tilt at Ian Fleming’s iconic creation, and part of that is because the star had his eye on ensuring it didn’t happen the entire time. More classic elements of Bond did make their way back into the franchise in his subsequent outings, but never to such an extent that those comparisons were being made.
