Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw and Lashana Lynch on new Bond film, No Time to Die

Virgin Radio

28 Sep 2021, 10:48

Ahead of this week’s release of the new James Bond film, Daniel Craig and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

Directed by American filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga, No Time To Die is the 25th film in the series, and will finally be released in UK cinemas on Thursday 30th September. Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: “After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, ‘I can’t do any more of these’. I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can’t wait for people to see it.

“I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there’s no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did. Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer’s done the music, and it’s just incredible. The story holds together.”

No Time to Die’s star cast also includes Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, and Ralph Fiennes. Daniel said: “Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it’s quite special." 

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film’s release due to the pandemic, the actor said: “It’s odd enough with a movie, when you’ve finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, ‘Woah, I hope it’s good.’ But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.”

When Chris asked Daniel where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond, he explained: “I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, ‘Over to you kiddo.’ So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis. It’s really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, ‘I can’t tell you!’”

Chris asked the actor whether there were any specific things in the original books by Ian Fleming that he latched onto in his own performances as 007. Daniel responded: “The drink and the drugs! That kind of dark side that is in the books, because he goes to Q, or he goes to the quartermaster and gets his daily ration of rum, it’s just like his daily ration of uppers. It’s stuff like that, that’s in the book, that’s very dark.

“A Russian journalist, a few years ago, gave me a chart of all the Bonds and what they drink, and I’m way at the top!” 

A video of Daniel giving an emotional farewell speech to the upcoming film’s cast and crew recently went viral on Twitter. Daniel told Chris: “It was my last night on Bond, or at least on shooting. It was a night shoot, at the back lot at Pinewood, which is kind of fitting because it was raining. I sort of wanted to say something. We hadn’t planned anything, and then everybody turned up, and I was just blown away.

“I hate making speeches, I’m just terrible at it. It was just heartfelt. It just came out, and I meant every word I said. Just how fortunate I’ve been to have the opportunity to even be near this, in a way. They don’t get made, very often, these things, and to have the chance to be even close to it, has been just amazing. I didn’t want to choke up. I wanted to be stoic, and failed miserably!”

Chris also spoke to some of the other star cast members of No Time To Die, including Léa Seydoux, who will reprise her role as Madeleine Swann. When talking about what to expect from the new film, she wasn’t giving much away! “I think that this time it will be even more emotional, and people will be surprised,” she said. “I don’t want to reveal too much! You will see what you will see! It’s exciting because it feels new. Bond shows a new side of himself, maybe more vulnerable.” 

Another one of the stellar cast touched on a similar point when talking to Chris. Ben Wishaw, who plays Q, said of his character: “He gets pulled back into working with Bond again, when Bond is apparently retired, so it’s all a bit underhand, and M doesn’t know about it. One of the scenes between Bond and Q happens at Q’s flat, so that’s quite exciting, we get to see a little bit of some of the characters’ private lives. The whole thing, I think, the whole film has something more personal about it. The character of Bond, more is at risk personally perhaps.”

Speaking of his relationship with Daniel Craig, Ben told Chris: “I worked with Daniel for the first time when I was 17, on a film that hardly anyone saw, called The Trench. So I’ve known Daniel since I was 17, that’s a long time ago, I can’t do maths, and he would have then been 30 or something, maybe even younger, and so it’s been a very long journey from then til now." 

Ben continued: “When I am going through London or something and I see his face on the side of a cinema, I’m amazed at the kind of way that he’s carried this character and shouldered the demands of the role, not just in the way he’s played it, but the demands that are put on you in terms of how you publicise it, how you talk about it, because none of that’s easy, and perhaps doesn't come easy to Daniel. And I really just respect, so much, the way he has conducted himself. I think he’s always brilliant as an actor, and has been from the first time I worked with him when I was 17, so that’s not a surprise to me. But I think being James Bond, and being that famous, and managing to stay sane, that really amazes me. I have huge respect for that.”

Chris chatted to newcomer Lashana Lynch, who plays MI6 agent Nomi. Of her character, she said: “I’d like to think that she’s going to go down as one of the Bond women in this franchise that packed a punch and really gave Bond a run for his money.”

When speaking about working with writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge on her character, Lashana told Chris: “I’m very straight-talking, so I was like, ‘Phoebs, this is what I think it should be. I think she should be bold, very fierce, a little bit awkward. I want her to be a real woman, I want her to be a real Londoner, I want her to represent all women but also not feel like she has a responsibility to, and I want her to pack a punch. What do you think?’ And she was like, ‘Quite literally, that was what I was thinking!’

“We were just on the same page. It was wonderful, because you don’t often get that experience, to even sit down with the writer, let alone her being a woman, and her being able to relate to you, and being on the same page as you. So that’s quite an honour actually.”

No Time to Die is in cinemas from September 30th.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.