“Let’s be honest”: the one thing Daniel Craig finds “fucking offensive” about James Bond
Just because he’s made his peace with knowing he’ll be spending the rest of his life being asked about James Bond, it doesn’t mean Daniel Craig has to give so much as a single shit about the franchise.
And, to be fair, he doesn’t. Once No Time to Die had been released, he washed his hands of 007 completely, or at least he did to the extent that any former incumbent can, even though people continue to ask for his thoughts on the future of a character he has absolutely no interest in.
That’s the way it’s been since the 1960s, though, and while George Lazenby has been trading on his one-and-done stint as cinema’s most famous secret agent because he achieved fuck all else in his career, and Roger Moore didn’t seem to mind, Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan found it particularly greating.
That’s the double-edged sword that comes with playing one of pop culture’s most iconic characters; it’s great for your career while you’re doing it, but you can never really draw a definitive line under it, because it’s the shadow that continues to linger. However, that wasn’t what pissed Craig off so much.
Instead, when it was put to him that an accident on the set of Quantum of Solace, which left stunt driver Aris Comninos seriously injured and airlifted to intensive care, was merely the latest example of the ‘Curse of Bond’ and one of those things that feels almost fated to happen every now and again, the actor was furious.
“The thing about the ‘Curse of Bond’ thing is that it’s fucking offensive, really,” he retorted. “Let’s be honest! It’s fucking offensive. There’s a risk in everything we do, and we have literally the best people in the world who do this, and every precaution is taken to minimise the risk, but there is a risk. And there’s no blame. There’s no blame whatsoever, and anyone who turns around and starts blaming people needs to shut the fuck up.”
He’s been through the wars himself, suffering several injuries during his five-film stint as 007, and any suggestions that it was down to a curse were summarily shot down. “But taking my finger as part of a ‘curse’, which is why I didn’t want to talk about it, that’s offensive,” he added, with the theory that shadowy forces were responsible for the various mishaps getting right under his skin.
Enough former ‘Bond girls’ have acknowledged the so-called ‘curse’ in one way or another that it’s become part of the franchise’s folklore, but any film series that runs for over 60 years and spans 25 official instalments stands a higher chance than most of being plagued by recurring accidents and incidents, whether they’re minor or major.
No production is 100% guaranteed to go off without a hitch, and trying to pin the blame on the misfortunes suffered by Craig or anyone else who’s worked on a Bond blockbuster is enough to make him incandescent with rage.
