Daniel spoke with The New York Times to discuss No Time to Die. This interview was done last year for the original release date of the film. A follow-up interview by phone was done last month, and this article is a mix of both interviews. Daniel also finally got to discover a viral clip of him from his Saturday Night Live stint where he introduces The Weeknd. Below is an excerpt of the interview!
What has the last year and a half been like for you? How are things, whatever that means to you?
They’re as good as they can be. I’m incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful family and also to have had a place out of the city where we could go and get away from kind of the craziness. We left the city the 8th of March. The night before, I did “S.N.L.,” which was truly surreal. It’s been a tough year for everybody and we’ve had things go down which have not been so pleasant, but so it goes.
Is it humbling to play these characters who are defined by being capable and resourceful and then to have a real-life experience that reminds you we’re all at the mercy of these larger forces?
Well, I don’t feel like that anyway. I feel like a normal human being most of the time. I don’t feel any connection to the characters I play. I mean at all. They’re just that. So many things have been put into perspective. It’s difficult not to just look at the world in a different way. I’m sure it’s the same for everybody.
There is a video clip making the rounds from a speech when you addressed your colleagues and crew at the end of filming “No Time to Die.” You teared up at the end, and it was very comforting to me to see you show emotion — that you could be vulnerable that way.
I don’t show myself to the world as much as maybe people would like, but that’s my choice. It’s got me probably into trouble and has made people make up their own minds about me. But I’m an incredibly emotional human being. I’m an actor. I mean, that’s what I do for a living. And the clip you’re talking about is the end of 15 years of my life that I’ve put everything I can into. I would be some kind of sociopath not to get a little bit choked up at the end of that. Hopefully, I’m no sociopath.
You can read the full interview at The New York Times. If you’re hit with the paywall pop-up, I have copied it in full on a separate page here on the site. Enjoy!
