David Dencik is no stranger to spy movies - his best-known English-language role up until now is in Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - nor is he too far estranged from the Bond acting family, having starred alongside Casino Royale villain Mads Mikkelsen in the gonzo Men & Chicken. As such, it's fitting Dencik plays an unassuming-yet-pivotal role in Daniel Craig swansong, No Time To Die. Playing the Russian scientist Valdo Obruchev, mastermind of the pivotal nanobot virus known as Heracles that powers the entire plot, Dencik got a unique view of the making of the twenty-fifth Bond film.

Ahead of No Time To Die releasing on home video (December 21), Screen Rant sat down with the actor to discuss his history with the franchise and the details of Obruchev.

Okay, so let's go right back to the start. What is your relationship with Bond growing up? What was your interest in the series?

I was born in 1974, so Roger Moore was my James Bond as a kid. I remember I was going up to the video rental store in Copenhagen where I grew up and picking up the latest VHS and watching it over and over again. But then, as I grew up, I started getting interested in other films and kind of lost touch with the entire Bond franchise, up until the point when Daniel Craig became James Bond. That's also when Danish villains were introduced into the Bond films and that's big in Denmark - I think Denmark is actually the country in the world that sees most James Bond per capita, more so than the UK, from what I've heard. So it's big. It's big in Copenhagen where I live. And that's when I started watching the Bond films again. And then I married my wife and her father was a big Bond fan. So he took me to Skyfall opening night and ever since then, Bond has been more relevant. And now I'm part of the family for the rest of my life.

So did you want to be a Bond villain growing up?

I can't remember that. Maybe. Not that I remembered how I wanted to be many other things, but not necessarily a Bond villain.

One thing dominant in this movie is the love for Bond. You talked about growing up with Moore, and there's so many references here. Did you look back to any particular Bond character when creating your character for No Time To Die?

Well, I did. Cary said I should watch... what's his name? There's a British actor in one of the films with Pierce Brosnan.

Alan Cumming in GoldenEye?

Yeah. So I watched that. Just for the sake of educating myself, I did watch all of the Daniel Craig films when I became a part of this, just to get a notion of tone, of language, and stuff like that.

What's interesting about this film is, obviously, it's coming out during a pandemic, and the plot involves virus - albeit a little more fantastical. Did anything change from any of the scenes? Obviously, it was all filmed pre-COVID, but did anything change in the edit?

I think it was exactly as it was - nothing changed to my knowledge. It's not that sensitive, in my opinion, towards the current pandemic, because who's going to be offended by the fact that it taps into something that everybody suffers from? But then there might have been considerations - I'm not aware of those particular considerations.

One scene that you get to the very end is you get the title moment when Nomi pushes you in the acid and says, "time to die." Was that always written as your moment?

It was not. We were discussing that particular line over and over - what was she going to say? It was Cary who came up with it, as far as I know, but who knows, maybe it could have been other people. Maybe they came up with a title after that line. I'm not sure what the ins and outs of how the title came along are.

Obviously, this is Daniel Craig's last Bond film. And even though we all knew that going in, we didn't know exactly what was going to happen with him. When did you find out what happened to his character?

Quite early on? I flew to Jamaica in May [2019]. And I think, over a couple of weeks from then, they pulled me aside and said, "You have to know this is going to happen." And I kept my mouth shut. I told my wife, I have to confess that, I'm sorry. But she didn't say that to anyone either. So we kept it to ourselves.

What was your reaction to the choices made in the movie?

Yeah. I loved it. I think it's brave. There are many things about this movie I really, really enjoy. I think it honors the people behind the movie that they went that far with the Bond character. Not only the ending, also the stuff around him with my character - that I got to go that far with all the weirdness going on with my role. I think it taps into some of the Nonds from my childhood in the 70s, where you had all kinds of eccentric villains wearing weird clothes or behaving in eccentric ways. So, I was happy that they chose that for this particular film.

And talking about audience reactions, Ana de Armas has been the real breakout star despite appearing for around 10 minutes. What was she like on that Cuba set? And what was the experience working with her seeing her work like?

Oh, it was great. She was good fun. I really enjoyed the scenes that we did together and having her on set. She has a great energy around her and is talkative and open and, you know, curious. She, we would sit and talk quite a bit about her childhood in Cuba. I enjoyed acting with her, I think she's a great actress.

And finally, where would you like to see Bond go next? We've had so much cool stuff with Craig telling this big sprawling story that's ended. What would you want out of a Bond 26 - as a fan?

Well, I would want the same, in a way. It's tradition. You have to be true to the core somehow, you can't be too creative. So I think - and I'm quite positive that they will - take that consideration into account. Because it can't be too freestyle when it comes to how you decide to portray it. I think, lift the heritage from the entire Bond heritage, but also from what Daniel Craig brought to the films, and to the character. I mean, I thought some of the scenes in Casino Royale with Eva Green and stuff like that, they're good drama scenes, good acting scenes, and I hope that they can put all of it together in the next film as well.

No Time To Die is available on digital now and releases on Blu-ray & DVD on December 21.