Daniel Craig's career before Bond and Benoit: it wasn't plain sailing

'Wake up Dead Man' is the new film from the 'Knives Out' franchise and fans are looking forward to its release in 2025, with this instalment described as being his “most dangerous case yet" in the trailer.

Daniel Craig has really tried to shake off the James Bond tag. Since the actor left the franchise, he has tried to reinvent himself and find his own style by taking on challenges that would see him known as 'Daniel Craig' instead of '007'.

But 'Daniel Craig' has had his fair share of difficulties, both professionally and personally, despite the successes of his most recent ventures. In this gallery, we take look at Daniel Craig's unpleasant past while celebrating his new on screen persona Benoit Blanc, and his famous role as James Bond.

The third instalment of the 'Knives Out Mystery' is coming to our screens in 2025. Daniel Craig plays the character Benoit Blanc who, as Empire predicted, could become as much a defining role for Craig as Bond.

Photo: Netflix

The second film, which was released in 2022, 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' showed Craig's role in a more focused light, making the character more rounded and, of course, more humorous. The film, in general, received good criticism and was named a 'crowd-pleaser' by Empire.

Photo: Netflix

Around the same time, what may have been more surprising for most fans was Craig's appearance in the captivating advertisement for Belvedere Vodka. The actor slips out of the Bond-esque suit and cinematic pose; and jumps into some leather, then proceeding to slide, boogie and hip thrust his way to a bottle of Belvedere. It's genius and fitting, shaking off Bond in front of the camera.

Photo: Advert for Belvedere Vodka

Craig has somehow managed to seamlessly slide into new characters and shed the 007 stereotype. The physical challenges of the James Bond role and the online hate he received made it easier for him to move on. Yet, he is as much the eternal Bond as he is Benoit Blanc.

Daniel Wroughton Craig was born on March 2, 1968, in Chester, England, and grew up near Liverpool. Craig enjoyed visiting the theatre with his mother and sisters. in fact, many of his mother's friends were actors, so he felt an early magnetism to the profession.

"I kind of fell in love with the idea of acting," Craig later told Interview magazine. "I liked the idea of it—you know, shouting a lot and dressing up and all that."

Craig began acting in school plays at the age of six and was introduced to serious acting by attending Liverpool's Everyman Theatre with his mother.

His mother, Carol Olivia, was an art teacher. His father, Timothy John Wroughton Craig, was a midshipman in the Merchant Navy before becoming the landlord of two different pubs: the Ring o' Bells in Frodsham and the Boot Inn in Tarporley, both Cheshire.

Family turmoil struck in 1972 when his parents split up. Young Daniel was raised with his older sister, Lea, in Liverpool. These were the beginnings of what would be a very uphill climb for this actor to reach success. He then lived in Hoylake, Wirral, at his mother's home.

Craig attended primary school in Frodsham and Hoylake, Merseyside. When he was old enough to take his eleven plus exam and get himself into a good education, he failed the exam and attended Hilbre High School in West Kirby, Merseyside, along with his elder sister Lea (born 1965).

When he had finished his secondary school education at the age of 16, he briefly joined Calday Grange Grammar School as a sixth-form student. He was trying to make the best of his education and, at the same time, giving a good go at sports. In fact, he'd played rugby union for Hoylake RFC.

He left Hilbre High School at age 16 to audition for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) on their tour in Manchester in 1984. He was accepted and moved to London. While in London, both his mother and father watched proudly as he performed his stage debut as Agamemnon in Shakespeare's 'Troilus and Cressida.'

Daniel was a struggling actor with the NYT. He was trying to make it work by subsidising himself working in restaurant kitchens and as a waiter. Many now-famous actors have started out this way, but it was not the big jump into the world of acting that Daniel had predicted.

He repeatedly failed at auditions for the Guildhall. Eventually, however, his persistence paid off and in 1988 he was accepted at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican, where he graduated in 1991 after three years of study under Colin McCormack.

Craig auditioned for the big 1996 BBC serial drama 'Our Friends in the North.' For this role he had to speak with a Geordie (Newcastle) accent. Craig apparently really made a pig's ear of the accent in the audition, but he got the role anyway and blew critics away with his performance. This was his big break finally coming.

When he was finally announced as the sixth cinematic Bond in 2005, he stayed up all night reading the negative reactions.
He said, "I read everything, because that is what happens if you do that. And it was tough — really tough and hate-filled."

He admits that he was not prepared for the amount of fame and scrutiny that came with the iconic role of the world's favourite spy. He said: "My personal life was affected by being that famous all of a sudden."

Once in the public eye, Craig was romantically linked to actress Sienna Miller and model Kate Moss. He also already had a daughter, Ella, from his two-year marriage to Fiona Loudon.

He had found it hard to live under the pressures of Hollywood and found comfort and solace in Satsuki Mitchell, whom he dated (and even got engaged to) for several years. She was not an actress or in the public eye at all really, and it is said she helped him overcome the many anxieties he had come to face thanks to his newfound fame.

In December 2010, Craig separated from Mitchell and called off the engagement. Not all sad news, however, as he began dating Rachel Weisz, his costar in 'Dream House.' The couple married in June 2011 in New York and welcomed a daughter in September 2018. They keep their private life very private.

It may have seemed all like a fairytale for those watching from the outside, but Daniel was suffering. After shaping up for the role of James Bond and working with a personal trainer, Daniel had to deal with the excruciating pain and psychological trauma of injuring himself during filming.

The actor said in an interview about those difficult times: "I basically volunteered for every stunt and with hindsight that was a bad mistake because I got badly hurt. I was overwhelmed."

For the second movie in the Daniel Craig/Bond franchise, 'Quantum Of Solace,' the filming was also disrupted by a 100-day Hollywood writers’ strike. Needless to say, that didn’t help the stress of all he was already dealing with.

Daniel broke his leg while filming the 2015 movie 'Spectre.' He states: "I had a lot of fun on that movie but part of the problem was that I broke my leg. We had to choose whether we could shut down for nine months and I could have an operation, or I could crack on with the movie. I didn’t want to shut down." So he battled on.

Craig is quoted as saying in an interview, just after he finished filming 'Spectre,' that he would rather "slash [his] wrists" than make another Bond movie. Hardly surprising really, given that he ended up having to undergo arthroscopic surgery after injuring himself on set.

But longtime Bond producer Barbara Broccoli was able to tempt him back after convincing him that he and Bond had unfinished business. We are certainly glad they did, as this young passionate actor from Liverpool has gone down as one of the best (if not 'the best') Bonds in history.

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