Daniel Craig returns as James Bond in Quantum of Solace

Daniel Craig is looking tired and it’s not surprising. With his second Bond film Quantum Of Solace about to open, he is arguably the most in-demand actor in the world right now.

But the lines around his blue eyes don’t dull their sparkle and the slight sound of fatigue in his voice doesn’t diminish his obvious enthusiasm for the role.

“I’ve been talking all day, I’m wound up like a coil now,” he says by way of apology.

Dressed in a grey suit, with a checked handkerchief in his breast pocket, a black waistcoat and crisp white shirt, he looks just like the slick MI6 agent.

However, you just wouldn’t expect James Bond to be wearing a sling around his right arm.

“Damn, I was trying to hide that,” he jokes, at mention of the shoulder injury.

“I really don’t know when I did it. I could give you three or four moments when it hurt, but I don’t know whether I tore it at that point.

“I think I tore it a few years ago, maybe even before I started as Bond, there’s no way of telling, but doing two Bond movies didn’t help,” he adds, with a brave laugh.

At just over an hour and forty minutes, Quantum Of Solace is one of the shortest of the 22 Bond films, but it’s also the most action-packed and Daniel is justifiably proud to say he did most of his own stunts.

“I didn’t push myself any further [than on Casino Royale], but I was involved in the action sequences a lot earlier. We had to rehearse them about two months before we set up, but only because I wanted to get them right,” he says.

“The shooting wasn’t harder, in certain respects it was easier, because I knew what I was doing this time. But we had time restraints on this movie, there was a potential actor’s strike happening, so we had a cut-off date.

“I had to film and in the evening rehearse and in my day’s off rehearse, so that made it more physically challenging.”

The film is the first direct sequel in the Bond franchise and picks up just 20 minutes after Casino Royale ended, as 007 jets around the globe on a personal mission to avenge the death of his beloved Vesper and learn more about the secret organisation Quantum.

From the opening car chase and rooftop chase sequence in Italy to the desert-set climax, the pace is almost relentless - and it’s hard to imagine what it was like to film.

“The rooftop scene was tough,” admits Daniel, who turned 40 during filming.

“It was tough because I was back and forward to that scene, I had to revisit the set two or three times. The crew continued filming there, obviously Siena didn’t shut down for us, they very graciously gave us their rooftops, but it was physically and logistically difficult to shoot.

“There were five, six, cameras on cranes and there’s an aerial camera and resetting is difficult, plus the fact that I’m tied off and jumping over roofs. So it was tough but also a lot of fun to shoot - and a very nice view.”

Daniel’s first Bond outing in 2006’s Casino Royale took more at the box office than any other, was nominated for nine Bafta Awards and won the actor an army of female fans for the tight blue trunks scene.

“I could never have guessed that it was going to do as well as that, all of it was a surprise to me. A few days before the premiere, I knew we had a good film, I knew that we’d done all we could, but beyond that I had no bench mark.

“As you well know, most of the films I’ve made, it’s not all been about box office, so it was amazing. It was a huge surprise, but very pleasant.”

Casino Royale also silenced certain die-hard fans who claimed Daniel was too blond and too short to play their screen hero.

“I got over that a long time ago,” he says of the criticism.

“I half expected what happened because I understood people’s passion for these movies and that they would react passionately to a new thing. The important thing was to get it right and do the best Bond movie we could.”

After Casino Royale’s success, surely now there’s more pressure on Quantum to do well?

“It’s better this way round,” Daniel says.

“If we’d had a dud last time, this would be a very very difficult process, so yes it gives added pressure, but it is good pressure and we’ve just got to utilise the impetus of it and work on the success, as they say.”

With Daniel in the role, the franchise was stripped back down to basics, with 007 becoming a ruthless bare-knuckled fighter, who didn’t need to rely on gadgets to get him out of a fix.

Bond has fewer catchy one-liners and is seemingly a more emotional man.

“It makes for more interesting viewing,” says Daniel of this new ‘realistic’ approach to the Bond films.

“I’ve genuinely pinched a lot from Ian Fleming, I think his Bond is very psychological, he thinks about things, he’s morally ambiguous, he’s an assassin, he kills people for a living, but he always goes after the bad guys.

“Along the way, I think it’s interesting to throw in some plot, but there’s no deep, meaningful thing here, I don’t approach it like some big dramatic piece, I just say ‘let’s get the script into good shape and tell a story’.”

Quantum Of Solace sees Bond team up with the sultry Camille (Olga Kurylenko) as their shared need for revenge unites them against a Bolivian general who is doing a deal with a philanthropic businessman.

As Bond gets nearer the truth, his relationship with his MI6 boss M (Judi Dench) is thrown to the fore.

“What we took from Casino Royale was this whole element of trust, who to trust and who your allies are and certainly M is an ally, so solidifying that relationship was incredibly important and I think we’ve got to a really good point now where anything’s possible, but getting Judi on screen as much as possible, that’s a no-brainer.”

Daniel’s off-screen relationship with the veteran actress is just as tight, he reveals.

“Judi does like a joke and we try to keep things as light as possible on set. They’re long days, you’re working with people very intensely and I think you’ve got to keep things fresh.

“One of the biggest things about doing this movie is we’re away from home for a long time and everyone’s missing their families and you’ve got to keep things happy. If it’s not a happy set, it’s sort of silly, so I crack jokes,” he says.

As for risking life and limb again as Bond in future, Daniel says he would love to make another film, but admits he doesn’t know how many more times he’ll reprise the role.

“I genuinely would just love to do another one, but maybe I’m just superstitious, or just stupidly pessimistic, I don’t know, I’m just going to see how it goes.

“I’m only borrowing the character. This is great, but someone else is going to come along and probably, hopefully do a better job than I’ve done and move it on, so it’s not mine, it’s Ian Fleming’s and the Broccoli’s.

“I want to say something like I’m the caretaker, but that’s a really naff thing to say,” he continues, with a laugh.

“I’m enjoying playing it and I do think we can do anything in the next movie, I genuinely believe that. We can introduce Moneypenny and Q back into the roles, we’ve just got to offer them to the best actors we can find.

“It’s hard to believe, but there’s a generation of people who don’t know Bond movies, they don’t watch them in the way I’ve watched them growing up, so just introducing the characters and expecting to understand who they are is the wrong thing to do, we have to reintroduce them and earn the right to have them.”

Before that though, Daniel is rightly due a very long holiday - and a good night’s sleep.

Quantum Of Solace is in cinemas now.