Perfect Bond Movie: Craig Speaks to GQ Mag

An interview with James Bond star Daniel Craig has appeared in the January, 2012, British edition of GQ (Gentleman's Quarterly) magazine, which has just hit newsagents in the UK. Craig also appears on the front cover in a new photograph taken specially for British GQ by Sam Taylor-Wood, with other photos by her inside.

The interview, mainly designed to help publicise Craig's new English-language movie version of 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' (which is released in the UK on December 26), was conducted in New York, but inevitably touches upon Craig's role as 007 in 'Skyfall', which is currently in production at Pinewood Studios and at other locations in the Greater London area.

The GQ interviewer (John Naughton) found Craig to be 'relaxed, funny and polite'. But Craig was also quick to concede that he finds giving interviews difficult: 'I'm just not very good at it', he said, recalling a tense interview he once had with British TV host Jonathan Ross around the time of 'Quantum of Solace'. Craig continued: 'I'm a really bad liar. I don't have those pat things to say'.

Further on in the interview, the 007 star explained: 'I think there's a lot to be said for keeping your own counsel. It's not about being afraid to be public with your emotions or about who you are and what you stand for, but if you sell it off, it's gone. It's precious. It's worth more than money'. He added that 'you can't buy your privacy back'. 

Turning to 'Skyfall', Craig revealed that starting on a new Bond movie had made him reflect on the first 007 movie he made ('Casino Royale'). Craig said: 'What's extraordinary is that at a point in my career when I was enjoying making movies and working with wonderful directors and just getting a big kick out of it, I was given this opportunity to do something for which I had no benchmark, no experience whatsoever. I threw myself into it full bore and it was a success. But I'm not sure quite how. Except that we had a good script; and I committed to it; and we had a good cast; and Martin Campbell did a pretty good job of that film whichever way you look at it'.

Craig continued: 'But there's a perfect Bond movie out there. And I'm going to find it if it kills me. Which it might. I have to be that way about it. The script that we have at the moment - and this is not just actor hyperbole - I'm genuinely excited about. There's a really good hook'.

The full interview with Craig can be read in the January, 2012, issue of GQ Magazine, currently on sale at British newsagents, priced £3.99.