Next month’s issue of Vanity Fair will feature George Clooney, Matt Damon and Daniel Craig as they take the  Proust Questionnaire.

From VF:

“If George Clooney could choose what to come back as, it would be his dog—as the actor states, “he lives better.” The Descendants lead also admits to being displeased with his posture and considers patience the most overrated virtue. Daniel Craig values patience in his friends above all, but doesn’t like his knees, and you’ll never guess what he considers his most treasured possession—but then, we can’t really be sure. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo star admits that he lies when answering questionnaires. Matt Damon, who played a widower twice this year, in Contagion and We Bought a Zoo, is focused on family off the camera—he says that he was happiest in bed making his four children and in the hospital watching them being born. He says that his greatest achievement is his marriage, that his real-life heroes are his parents, and that his favorite names are those of his wife and children. He and Clooney both wish they could play instruments, while the more practical Craig only wishes he had opposable toes.”

In one of the most talked about film projects of this year, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Craig stars as a Swedish Journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, who pairs up with a very unique computer hacker by the name of Lisbeth Salander. 

Talking about the cast, the forty-three year old English native discussed his accent in the Fincher helmed production, or the lack thereof.  “Some people in the film have accents and some don’t. I don’t. I had a long conversation with David about it and said that a lot of Scandinavians speak English perfectly. I’m one of those guys. We’ve got Danish people, Swedish people, English people, American people. The only thing that matters, as far as I’m concerned, is that no one sounds American. We sound as European as possible. We’re all speaking one common language and that happens to be English. I didn’t want an accent to get in the way, and for me it would. Salander has no formal education and she has a street accent, it’s quite specific.”  Touching on his role as James Bond, Craig says that facing his fear and rationality eventually made him take the leap, accepting the offer to play such a well known character that could have ultimately changed the path of  his acting career.  “I weighed everything up and the only reason not to do it was fear. The fear of losing everything else. And you can’t not do something because you’re afraid. Well, you can, jumping off cliffs and things like that, but to be afraid of losing something because I was going to play James Bond is kind of nonsense. That’s how I convinced myself. I thought: Even if it goes wrong, hopefully I’ll earn enough money to live on an island when I’m old and get a leathery brown tan! And drink cocktails in the afternoon. Which sounds quite good to tell the truth.”

Bond, he explains, was also his big debut for American audiences, since most of his work had been in British motion pictures.  “I went to audition for a lot of bad guys in American movies and was sick of going on tape to play the villain in this and that film…and then losing out to fucking… no, I’d better not say who!“  Throwing the interviewer of Time out London, “I think the ‘fucking’ bit scuppered that answer”, Craig adds with a laugh,  “yes!  Let’s just say “the usual suspects”. So, apart from those films, luckily I was able to do really interesting English and European films.”

Jumping back to the beginning of his career, Daniel Craig spoke a little about his film roles that he took on while still studying drama at Guildhall.  “In my third year I went up for a bad guy in an American movie. A South African. And I got it. I went to do this movie in South Africa and Zimbabwe and I just lost it, I forgot how to act. Everybody was saying, “Oh , you’re so intense, you’re so intense.” [Does his best ‘intense’ impression  and bursts out laughing] I was shit-scared! I’d forgotten how to act! It wasn’t until doing the TV series Our Friends in the North  in 1996 that I remembered what it was about. Doing that for a year changed everything. I remembered what I loved about acting.  All the old hands were like, “Fucking relax, just enjoy it.” Literally, until that point, I was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. “Oh, you’re so intense! So angry!”

While Craig does crack a few jokes here and there, the Cowboys and Aliens star can also make a joke about himself about what he calls “modelling.”  “Me and my very close friend call it “modelling”. I don’t find myself particularly good at it. But you find yourself having to model sometimes in movies. It’s kind of that. [He does a Blue Steel impression, tipping his chin, giving it the stare.] Some people are really good at it. And then you watch it and you go, “Oh, that’s fucking modelling, what are you doing?” But it is part of movie-making. That’s what I like about David Fincher, too. He’s got an eye for that. He might say, “Tip your chin,” and you know he’s looking at an angle, he’s looking at the lighting. I love that. If you’re too aware of yourself I think it goes wrong, I really do. As long as my ears don’t stick out too much, I’m happy.”

“The greatest asset to an actor is their ego, but it’s also their greatest enemy. The ego gives you the balls to get up there and do it, but it’s also the thing that scuppers you because you’ve got to act, you’ve got to communicate, you’ve got to think about what the other person’s thinking, not whether you look good.”

Daniel Craig will show up in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo December 21st, 2011.

“I think there’s a lot to be said for keeping your own counsel.  You can’t buy it back. You can’t buy your privacy back. ‘Ooh, I want to be alone. ‘F–k you. We’ve been in your living room. We were at your birth. You filmed it for us and showed us the placenta, and now you want some privacy?’”

The star of The Adventures of Tintin and director David Fincher‘s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Craig then went on to use the Kardashians as a prime example of airing your dirty laundry in Tinseltown.  “Look at the Kardashians, they’re worth millions.  I don’t think they were that badly off [financially] to begin with but now look at them. You see that and you think, ‘What, you mean all I have to do is behave like a f–king idiot on television and then you’ll pay me millions?’”

Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook
Writers: Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat, Joe Cornish

I think parts of this look great but whenever I see Tintin, his mouth is always open and it’s hardly ever moving. I’m sure it’s not close to being finished but the faces look weird to me. Like some creepy baby-doll face that doesn’t move.

In theaters: December 23rd, 2011

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This 3 minutes and 45 seconds trailer is only part of the 8-minute one I saw before a screening last week. I think this trailer below is freakin great but what I saw before was even better if you can imagine. 

Director: David Fincher

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson

Writer: Steven Zaillian

In theaters: December 21st, 2011

Dream House

Director: Jim Sheridan
Cast: Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, Marton Csokas, Elias Koteas, Jane Alexander
Writers: David Loucka

In theaters: September 30th, 2011

The Adventures of TinTin

Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook
Writers: Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat, Joe Cornish

In theaters: December 23rd, 2011

Cowboys and Aliens

Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell

In theaters: July 29th, 2011

Cowboys and Aliens

Cast: Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell

Director: Jon Favreau

My thoughts.

1. I really want to see this show.
2. How can you get yelled at by Hugh Jackman in front of a packed audience only to later have your phone ring again! This is Wolverine and Bond, jackass. Turn off your phone!
3. How come no one is asking about the guy who recorded this? Who records a Broadway show? Should I be looking on torrents for shows?

From USAToday.com:

On the show, A Steady Rain:
The gritty account of two Chicago policemen whose lives are upended by shattering events, some inspired by a real-life case, marks Craig’s Broadway debut.

Daniel Craig: “I just was fascinated by this great piece of writing, very emotional and disturbing but quite funny at points.”

Hugh Jackman: “It’s very raw — there are not many plays like it on Broadway.”

On Their Roles and careers:
Jackman: “I suppose the roles are different from others we’ve done, but that’s what you want. To be remembered for different things is something that motivates both of us.”

Craig: “We both come from places where the movie industry isn’t something you can walk straight into.”

Jackman: “Or make a living in.”

Craig: “In drama school, we’d have one day a term where someone brought a camera in, and we’d film each other mucking about. That was it, basically. People say that acting in theater and film are different disciplines, but I can’t agree completely. The only thing that matters in acting is truth. It’s all about making the audience believe you.”

The importance of working with a great actor:
Craig: “I don’t know how much smoke I should blow up his a—, but Hugh’s tremendously talented. When you’re on stage, you want to be looking at someone who’s intelligent and who’s got your back. It makes my job that much easier, lazy actor that I am.”

I think I might need to take a trip to NYC to see this show. Who’s with me?

“Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman star in the most anticipated theatrical event of the season: A Steady Rain. This new American play by Keith Huff tells the story of two Chicago cops who are lifelong friends and whose differing accounts of a few harrowing days change their lives forever. Directing is John Crowley.” (via asteadyrainonbroadway.com)

The show runs from September 10 through December 6th.

Click here for the website and ticket information

“I think Bond is as misogynistic as he always was. But the difference is that we try to cast great actresses playing strong women who, if he misbehaves, will tell him to f*** off,”