Daniel Craig Says One Line Was Key to Him Agreeing to Become James Bond

While Daniel Craig has reaped the benefits of playing James Bond for five films, the actor says at the time the decision mostly came down to one line for him. Speaking with Empire promoting the upcoming No Time to Die, Craig said that he agreed to do Casino ROyale in 2006 in large part because of how a line in the script assured him that he wouldn’t be just ripping off past 007 films.

“One of the biggest reasons I did Casino Royale is the line, ‘A vodka martini, please.’ ‘Shaken or stirred?,’” Craig told the site. “My reply was written in the script as, ‘Do I look like I give a f**k?’ And that’s it. That’s the reason I did it. Because what I could not do, and what I refused to do, was repeat what had gone before. What was the f**king point? So I’d rather have just one and gone, ‘Okay, swing and a miss. There you go. Tried my best.’

With the Bond franchise having broken records with Craig in the iconic role, it’s easy to forget that before Casino Royale the franchise was viewed as on its way out. 007 had been eclipsed by the likes of the Bourne franchise, and a reboot with Craig was viewed with a lot of skepticism so even as famous of a role as it is, it wasn’t quite the slam dunk role to take that it is today. Casino Royale helped change that, reinvigorating the franchise after the lackluster reception to 2002’s Die Another Day and setting a then-record for the franchise with $599 million worldwide. That record has since been eclipsed by Skyfall’s $1.109 billion worldwide.

No Time to Die, the final Bond film starring Craig, opens on April 8th, 2020.