‘Bond… Lyin’ James Bond…’
James Bond fans worldwide were “shaken and stirred” on Tuesday evening when Daniel Craig officially confirmed he would reprise the role of 007 for the fifth (and final) time in the 25th Bond film, due out in Nov. 2019. Craig made the announcement during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. As Vanity Fair reports, Craig had previously been attached to the project via reports from the New York Times and other sources, but had never confirmed personally — until his appearance on Colbert’s show. “I’ve been quite cagey about it,” Craig confessed about the news of his fifth Bond film. “I’ve been doing interviews all day and people have been asking me, and I have been rather coy. But I kind of felt like… if I was going to speak the truth, I should speak the truth to you.”
About those other interviews — earlier Tuesday morning, during phoners with two Beasley Media stations to promote his new film, Logan Lucky, let’s just say that Mr. Craig stopped considerably short of confirming the Bond news he was saving for Colbert’s show that evening. When asked about it point-blank by Preston & Steve on WMMR/Philadelphia, Craig said, “I hate to burst the bubble on that one, but there’s no decision made just yet. I’m not trying to be coy with you, but there’s a lot of noise out there at the moment and I’m trying to stay out of it.”
Craig told almost the identical story during a conversation with David O’Leary and Sue Tabb, hosts of Morning Magic on Beasley’s WMJX (Magic 106.7)/Boston. He said (see if this sounds familiar), “I’d hate to burst the bubble, but no decision has been made at the moment. There’s a lot of noise out there and nothing official has been confirmed, and I’m not, like, holding out for more money or doing anything like that. It’s just all very personal decisions to be made at the moment. I know they’re desperate to get going and I would, in theory, love to do it, but there is no decision just yet.”
After making his formal Late Show announcement, Craig sheepishly referenced these earlier radio interviews, telling Colbert, “I have to apologize to all the people I’ve done interviews with today, because I wanted to tell you.”
