“Out of the question”: The one thing Daniel Craig refused to do as James Bond
It would be foolish to imagine that any old actor can just waltz into the role of James Bond and start shooting the next instalment in the globetrotting spy franchise without a care in the world. It’s a role that takes a hefty toll, with Daniel Craig one of just several incumbents of the part who suffered in the name of their art.
Months of arduous physical exercise to get into the correct shape, the voluminous amount of stunt rehearsals, and extensive firearms training are all part and parcel of being 007, something Craig weaponised to his advantage when he went full Ursula Andress in Casino Royale and emerged glistening from the sea looking buff enough for gym posters.
That being said, no amount of preparation can render a performer immune from harm, with the longest-tenured Bond in cinema history having gritted his teeth and powered through several agonising injuries. It was Craig who suggested long before No Time to Die was even a twinkle in the eye of Eon Productions that he be killed off in his final outing, but he’d been putting his foot down long before that.
Because pop culture can be a strange and unforgiving place, one of the biggest criticisms of the actor’s initial casting as the suave secret agent was that his hair was the wrong colour. For whatever reason, the purists had gotten it into their heads that Bond couldn’t be played by anybody who doesn’t have dark hair, with the decidedly blonde Craig rubbing them entirely the wrong way.
Petitions were launched and signed, anti-blonde websites decrying the madness about to ensue were hastily cobbled together, and then everybody had to swallow a sizeable piece of humble pie whole when the prologue to Casino Royale instantly blew away any doubts that Craig somehow wasn’t the ideal candidate to drag the property kicking and screaming into the modern age.
The blonde thing quickly subsided, then, but not without the leading man passing judgement on the furore. It was reported in the Daily Mail that Craig flat-out rejected the notion of reaching for the bottle, deciding that a haircut was a much better substitute than potentially looking ridiculous while sporting a dye job that obviously wasn’t his natural colour.
“I was asked to dye my hair brown to play this role but it was out of the question,” he adamantly stated. “I suggested instead that I could cut my hair really short to create a more brutal appearance.” Would anyone call his Casino Royale bob “brutal”? Probably not, but if he thought it was suitably savage, then there’s no reason to split literal or figurative hairs.
However, it begs the question, what colour of hair will the next James Bond have? Again, much like in Craig’s era it doesn’t matter in the slightest, but let’s just hope the best person for the job is hired regardless of whether they’ve got black, brown, blonde, ginger, or even grey upon their head, perhaps even bald.