Daniel Craig's James Bond reservations

Daniel Craig only agreed to play James Bond if he could be involved in “every part of the process”.

The 53-year-old actor – who will be making his fifth and final appearance as Ian Fleming’s fictional British spy in ‘No Time To Die’ – took some “persuading” to take on the iconic role, because he knew it would change his life forever.

And producer Barbara Broccoli – who has worked on the Bond franchise since she was 17 – has revealed the ‘Elizabeth’ star has been a “tremendous help” in “all aspects” of the 007 films, from shooting a lot of the stunts himself to helping with the scripts.

Speaking on the ‘No Time To Die: The Official James Bond Podcast’, Broccoli, the daughter of late Bond producer Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, said of casting Craig: “The big problem was that he didn’t want to do it, because I think he thought it was going to change his life dramatically and he was doing extremely well as an actor and liked the challenges of that.

“It took some persuading but eventually he sat with Michael and I, and he said, ‘Well, If I am going to take this on, I want to be an integral part of the process. I want to be involved in the scripts, I want to be involved in every element of the filmmaking.’

“And we said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ And he has been a tremendous help in all the aspects, he’s super intelligent, really brilliant about story and characters and drama and what works. He did a lot of phyal training, so he does most of the action and he’s involved in the kind of development of the action and everything.

“So he was just a perfect choice.”

Broccoli admitted people were “eating their own words” when the ‘Specre’ star became hugely successful in the role.

She said: “At the beginning, there was some resistance that Bond is not blonde and all this nonsense.”

The ‘Knives Out’ actor made his first outing as the suave spy in 2006’s ‘Casino Royale’.