You never know where the conversation will go after Stephen Colbert prepares a drink for you on the stage of NJPAC.
Colbert spoke to Daniel Craig–who stars in The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the Montclair Film Festival’s opening night movie–about James Bond, the craft of acting and other subjects along with some playful banter on Friday, October 28. The 90-minute event was a fundraiser for the Montclair Film Festival.
Craig is a native a Liverpool. According to the actor all men from Liverpool of a certain generation claim to have gone to school with the Beatles.
The 54-year-old actor played rugby as a boy, but knew he wanted to be an actor. The alumni of the United Kingdom’s National Youth Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama told Colbert he remembers being backstage when he was around six years old at one of his mother’s performances.
Craig starred as MacBeth on Broadway earlier this year. The conversation touched on how Craig approaches performing Shakespeare.
“You have to get into it,” says Craig. “You have to learn it backwards and forwards and every which way. And when you do, it’s uncontrollable.” Craig says he acts with an open mind and is always willing to learn from others.
During the conversation, Craig revealed he was a fan of Colbert’s work on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, which ran from 2005 to 2014. Colbert thanked him and told Craig that while making that show he didn’t have time to appreciate the recognition he was getting.
Colbert then spun a yarn from that time. He was picking up mulch at Ploch’s Nursery. A young man at the nursery recognized him and offered to carry the three 50 lb. bags he bought to his car.
“That’s the perfect level of fame for me,” quipped Colbert.
In a film career spanning 30 years, Craig has worked with directors such as Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes, Martin Campbell and Rian Johnson. He told Colbert what he thinks makes up a great director.
“They will allow you [the actor] to bring something to the table. They take time to work with the actors so they can bring out their best.”
In the early 1990s Craig had a burgeoning career in TV that was paying the bills, but he wanted something more challenging, so he embarked on a film career. His first movie was 1992’s The Power of One. Around 2005 when a casting director from the production company for the James Bond reboot Casino Royale offered Craig the role of James Bond, he responded by asking to see the script before accepting the role.
Craig held the Bond role for 15 years and five movies, some of them acclaimed as the best Bond films of the franchise’s 60-year history.
A member of the UK’s Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Craig is building another franchise by playing detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out and The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. A third movie has been approved for production.
During the audience Q&A, someone asked Craig who was his favorite role.
“I’m gonna have to go with Benoit [Blanc],” said Craig. “It’s just a joy and people find it funny.”