Daniel Craig was far from a household name when he was announced as the new James Bond back in 2005. He was a very different choice for the iconic role. He had a very different look than the tall, dark, and refined look that James Bond previously had, Craig, while still being able to pull off a tux, was something of a rougher customer, but then, that was the idea.
Part of the plan for the new James Bond was a sort of soft reboot to the character that would take him back to the beginning. Ian Fleming's original James Bond novel, Casino Royale was to be adapted but from the outset it was clear this would be a different James Bond. Daniel Craig told Empire there was a single line in the original script that convinced him to take the part, because it showed he could take the role to a different place. According to Craig...
One of the biggest reasons I did Casino Royale is the line, ‘A vodka martini, please.’ ‘Shaken or stirred?’ My reply was written in the script as, ‘Do I look like I give a fuck?’ 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 fucking point? So I’d rather have just one and gone, ‘Okay, swing and a miss. There you go. Tried my best.
The old "shaken, not stirred" was a classic of Bond movies, one of the lines fans had come to expect in every outing for the super spy. By the time the line is thrown away in Casino Royale, audiences already know that Daniel Craig's Bond is somebody new. While a lot of people were hesitant about Daniel Craig being a very different James Bond at the beginning Casino Royale sold a lot of people that the right choice had been made.
It's interesting that originally, the plan was to use the film's one PG-13 F-bomb on the line. In the end, the line was changed to, "Do I look like I give a damn?" It's still delivered perfectly, so the vulgarity isn't, strictly speaking, necessary, though it certainly would have made the line sting a bit more.
Check out the scene as it ended up in the clip below.
With No Time To Die on the way, and with the film confirmed to be Daniel Craig's last go-round as James Bond, the inevitable question of what's next comes up. Will we get a new Bond that follows in Craig's footsteps? Will we shift back to the more classic era? Will somebody find an entirely new direction for the character?
However it's done, Daniel Craig has certainly earned his spot as one of the great James Bond actors. No Time To Die arrives in 2020.
