Daniel Craig ‘wasn’t happy’ playing James Bond

Later this month, James Bond star Daniel Craig will hit cinema screens once again as Benoit Blanc, the effervescent detective working to solve a murder mystery in Glass Onion. This outrageous and thrilling character is a far cry from the 007 he has been playing for 15 years, and one of his Bond co-stars has revealed the change was welcomed by Craig.Craig teamed up with Bond villain star Dave Bautista once again in the second Knives Out movie, which hits cinemas later this month before going on Netflix.In Spectre, Craig went toe-to-toe with Bautista, who played the assassin Mr Hinx, but this time around, he’s nothing more than a suspect.The Guardians of the Galaxy star recently opened up about seeing Craig in a new light while filming Glass Onion.”He was really put through it on Bond,” he revealed. “You could feel that he was under a lot of pressure. He didn’t seem like the happiest person on Bond.”On this new film, however, things were a lot different. Daniel Craig was not happy playing James Bond (Image: GETTY) James Bond fans will not see Daniel Craig as the hero again (Image: GETTY)Bautista said: “But on Glass Onion, it was the complete opposite.”He went on to add that Craig was “just so much fun” while filming the movie.”He was always smiling and happy and interacted a lot more,” he revealed. “On Spectre, there wasn’t a whole lot of interaction with the whole cast. But Glass Onion was the complete opposite. We were always together. So I got to know him better as a person and actually see him do his thing.”The American star, who previously starred in Blade Runner 2049 and was a professional wrestler, also called Craig’s acting prowess “amazing”. (Via EW)READ MORE: Next James Bond – Luke Evans praised 007 actor for ending ‘Moore era’ Daniel Craig was convinced to return as James Bond (Image: GETTY)Bautista said: “It’s really a weird thing when you watch someone transform from Bond to Benoit Blanc. It’s amazing because I’m always in awe of people who can transform themselves like that.”He added that the ability displayed by Craig is “why he wanted to be an actor” in the first place.Craig’s disdain for being James Bond is not wholly surprising. He famously did not want to return as 007 after Spectre had finished shooting.Looking back, he said: “I wanted people to believe it was me doing those stunts. However, after Spectre, I genuinely felt like I couldn’t do that anymore. I felt like, ‘What was the point?'”DON’T MISS…Next James Bond – Luke Evans praised 007 actor for ending ‘Moore era’ [NEWS]Henry Cavill ‘born to play James Bond’ confesses Daniel Craig director [INFO]James Bond stars were ‘frightened’ to take on ‘demanding’ franchise [INSIGHT]Craig also called it “really tough on everybody” when he’s away from home for “at least a year”.The British star also endured an injury on the set of Spectre, which left him hospitalised. On this he said: “That call [to my wife], when I go: ‘Hi, I got injured, I’m going to the hospital,’ is not a great phone call to make. I didn’t feel like I could do it anymore.”Eventually, he was talked into returning to the franchise for one more movie – but he had one major stipulation.Bond bosses Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson later revealed that Craig would only return if his version of James Bond was killed off.They recalled: “[The idea of killing of Craig’s Bond] came up again when we were making Spectre. ‘Cause he said: ‘You know, this is it. I don’t wanna do any more. I think we should kill me off.’ And we said: ‘Hmmm, don’t think so.’ Particularly ’cause we wanted him to do another one. And so we had the ending in that where he threw his gun away and he was gonna go off and live a happy life.”After that, they approached him again and said: “You know it’s not the end of the story. You can’t go out like that. It’s a great starting place to see Bond in retirement and how would he deal with it. So let’s think about that.’Craig replied: “OK I’ll give it some thought.”Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery releases in cinemas on November 23, before hitting Netflix on December 23.Knives Out is available to watch on Netflix now.SOURCE / SOURCE