Actor Daniel Craig has revealed that he had a few drinks and offered Sam Mendes the job of directing Skyfall in a move that he anticipated getting reprimanded for. It all worked out in the end, though, as Skyfall went on to gross more than $1 billion at the box office and stands as the most commercially successful James Bond movie of all time.
On The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast (via The AV Club), Craig recalled how it all went down. He said he was at a Christmas party hosted by Hugh Jackman when, after imbibing a few adult beverages, he spoke with Mendes about having the Oscar-winning American Beauty director take on Skyfall. Craig admitted he was “definitely a little drunk” when this happened.
“It just became glaringly obvious to me sitting opposite him,” Craig said of Mendes and the potential for him to direct the next James Bond movie at the time. “And so I just basically went, ‘I’m probably not supposed to say this, but do you want to direct the next Bond movie?'”
Mendes liked the idea, but Craig thought to himself, “I’m in sh** now” because he might not have had the authority to offer Mendes the job in the first place.
“I’m sure there is somebody I have to talk to about that before I go offering directors jobs,” Craig said. “It’s not my responsibility. But I was drunk! What can you say.”
Craig said he then called James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli to tell her what he had done, expecting to get in trouble for it, but she liked the idea and the rest is history. Mendes directed Skyfall and followed it up with Spectre before leaving the series. The two films combined to gross nearly $2 billion at the box office.
Craig has had a few memorable drinking stories come to light. Before this, actor Mark Strong revealed he botched an audition for a James Bond villain because he was out drinking with Craig the night before.
“I overdid it and the next day I was severely hungover. I started, then I just forgot my lines, couldn’t remember what they were and they all just kind of fell apart. I was sweating, it was a terrible experience but I really learned from it,” he said.
When Craig got the call from Broccoli many years ago that he was the next James Bond, he celebrated by knocking back a series of cocktails on his own because he was sworn to secrecy. “I bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a cocktail shaker and made myself three or four vodka martinis,” he said, as reported by The Independent.
Craig played 007 for a fifth and final time in 2021’s No Time To Die. The search is now underway for the next James Bond, who will likely be a British man of any ethnicity or race.
