Bond bares all

9:26am Saturday 19th April 2008

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Becoming Bond has opened many doors for Daniel Craig, including being able to produce his latest film.

He talks to Steve Pratt about coping with the red carpet treatment and going naked

I MEET Daniel Craig, the latest screen James Bond, going the wrong way along the red carpet.

Im heading into the Leicester Square cinema where his new film, Flashbacks Of A Fool, is having its world premiere. Hes on his way out, being led outside to meet and greet the crowds pushing against the barriers lining the route. I might have guessed the screams and shouts accompanying my progress along the carpet werent for me.

Craigs tenure as 007 got off to a shaky start and a spot of ridicule when he arrived by speedboat down the Thames for the launch press conference wearing a life jacket. This may have satisfied the insurers but made him look a bit of a wimp. But it wouldnt have done for the new Bond to have drowned before hed fired a shot or bedded a single girl, would it?

Once Casino Royale hit the screen, everyone knew the producers had made a wise choice in casting Craig as Ian Flemings not-so-secret secret agent. Hes currently filming his second outing as 007 in Quantum Of Solace, in which hell battle the usual array of baddies and an incomprehensible title.

The film will open later in the year, when Craig will be treading the red carpet again. Hes happiest, though, being an actor not a celebrity, despite coping well with the demands both on and off screen of being Bond.

Hes even learnt to use the clout that helping revive the franchise hands him. Which brings us to Flashbacks Of A Fool, a movie that would never have been made without Bond. His success in Casino Royale helped the production get the green light.

Craig is not only star but also executive producer.

Its a personal film as its written and directed by his good friend, Baillie Walsh. He wrote the part of fading Hollywood actor Joe Scott for Craig.

Once the guests are seated in the cinema and watching the film, Craig continues with his press duties, explaining that they C he and Walsh C have been trying to get the film made for seven or so years.

It wasnt until things have happened over the past couple of years C by which he means playing Bond C that people have had more interest in the project.

It just seemed the right thing to do to get involved as executive producer because I have to press the flesh and say look, please put your hand in your pocket and spend some money on this movie, I believe in this movie, I believe in the people that got involved in the movie and Id like to see it made, he says.

Having produced once, hed be happy to do so again. If I can make movies like this, then Im going to get a huge amount of enjoyment doing it, he says.

And if I can be responsible even slightly for getting movies like this off the ground, or movies of any type that I can be proud of like this, then yes.

You can be very embarrassed about asking people to spend money and youre putting your neck on the line, so if Im going to ask people to spend money, it has to be something I believe in.

BUT Baillie and I surrounded ourselves with really genuine talent and so, if you fail, you fail the best you can, if that makes sense. Youre with the best people in the right situation and it makes for an exciting way of making movies.

Inevitably, people wonder if Craig could become like Joe Scott, a washed-up actor with few career prospects. It would be very easy to turn into someone like the character, says the Chester-born, Liverpoolraised actor.

Weve had lots of questions alluding to the fact that hes a fading movie star. When Ballie wrote the movie for me, I wasnt doing what Im doing today, so when we actually came to make the movie it seemed silly to change it.

But who knows? Thats the way things go. What was interesting to me C and what was always interesting in the script C was that youve got someone who appears to have everything, or at least has the opportunity to have everything, and hes f**ked up, or lost it.

He doesnt deny that you always have to work hard at not becoming disillusioned about what you do, and not just in the movie industry. If you have any success at what you do for a living, you have to maintain an energy and a love for it. And if you can, then thats a great thing.

When we meet Joe Scott, hes lost everything, not just interest in his business, but in living. That, for me, was what drew me to this movie. It was less to do with whether he was successful as an actor or a businessman. That doesnt matter, hes failed as a human being and I wanted to explore that.

He sees the film as touching on things that everyone went through, such as the first kiss and the electrifying moments when youre a teenager that form who you are as a human being.

Those, for me, are what Baillie captured so well.

Its a big time in your life. It doesnt matter whether you have the happiest upbringing C the young Joe Scott had the most dysfunctional family there could be C but its still a family and its a really good, strong family. In spite of that, he runs away from home.

I relate to all of those things very directly. I hit 40 this year, but I still think about being a teenager and, hopefully, I will for the rest of my life. Theyre important years.

Those who liked the look of Craigs Ursula Andress impression in Casino Royale C rising from the sea wearing a pair of tight trunks C should be alerted that he wears even less in Flashbacks Of A Fool. His naked frolic with a pair of equally-unclad women is followed by exposure of Craigs bare bottom. He looks in as good a shape as he did as 007.

Obviously, when I came to do the movie I knew that I was going to have to take my clothes off, so I might have worked a little bit harder to keep myself fit, he says.

But thats the irony of it. You see all these fit and healthy people, and Im not making any comments on it, but everybody deep down is a f**k-up somewhere. It doesnt matter if you look a million dollars, everybody has their flaws.

So thats why it had to be that way. He was living the life, he would stay out for three days probably, get drunk and do whatever he was doing, and then hit the gym for two days. Thats the craziness of the lifestyle, youre damaging yourself in more ways than one.

Joe Scott has had it all and lost it. Craig has hit the big time with Bond, but was there a time he felt it could have gone differently for him? It still could.

But what will be, will be, he says.

Walking down the red carpet at world premieres is something hell never get used to, but is prepared to do. Every movie I get involved with, I get involved in as big a level as I possibly can. But this has been a very much more personal journey for me, so bringing it here tonight theres a sense of relief, theres a sense of just amazement that it got here because its been a struggle.

But this is a good way to launch it and there couldnt be a better way of celebrating this movie than bringing it to the West End.

ö Flashbacks Of A Fool (15) is now showing in cinemas.