Daniel Craig is very much ready to wrap up his time in the James Bond film franchise. The 52-year-old British actor stars as 007 for the fifth time in the upcoming movie, No Time to Die, and to get fans ready for his return to the sexy role, he's posing shirtless for GQ magazine.
Craig -- who is seen in only a pair of unbuttoned jeans -- opens up in the new issue of the magazine about his reluctance to join the franchise and star in the fifth film, which was supposed to come out in April but was pushed to November.
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“I was never going to do one again. I was like, 'Is this work really genuinely worth this, this whole thing?'" Craig, who has been vocal in the past about his conflicting feelings about reprising his role as 007, says of making a fifth film. "And I didn’t feel… I physically felt really low. So the prospect of doing another movie was just like, it was way off the cards. And that’s why it has been five years."
Craig also opens up about past controversial comments he's made about the Bond movies, explaining that he's not comfortable in the spotlight.
"You’re front and center while filming, and then they tell you to go and sell the movie. Literally, you’re standing in a crowd of people,” he explains. "And suddenly they’ve all pushed you forward. And they’re like, ‘Go on!’ It’s really disconcerting. And you think you’re responsible. And actually, of course, you are."
When Craig was originally offered the role of the special agent, he admits he was hesitant.
“I remember saying to them early on, ‘I can’t do a Sean Connery impression. I can’t be Pierce [Brosnan]’... I could be anonymous in the world. It was genuinely like, my life is going to get f**ked if I do this," he says. "It was literally like, ‘F**k off. I don’t f**king want this. How dare you? How dare you offer this to me?' It’s just ludicrous. But it was all self defense."
As for the end of his time playing Bond, Craig doesn't seem to have any reservations.
“I’m OK. I don’t think I would have been if I’d done the last film and that had been it," he says of 2015's Spectre. "But this, I’m like… Let’s go. Let’s get on with it. I’m fine.”
The new release date of No Time to Die is Nov. 25.
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