Daniel Craig Shares how He Got His Role In ‘Star Wars’
When James Bond asks to be in your movie, you can’t just turn him down, right?
Daniel Craig had a few connections to Lucasfilm and the galaxy far, far away. Back in 1999 he played a German officer named Schiller in an episode of The Adventures of Young Indian Jones. Then, in 2011 he appeared alongside Harrison Ford in Cowboys and Aliens. Most recently, in 2019 he took on the role of Detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out under the direction of Rian Johnson. The closest he ever got to the Star Wars franchise was his role the First Order stormtrooper FN-1824.
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Daniel Craig is currently on a press tour promoting the twenty-fifth overall and his fifth and last James Bond movie No Time To Die, which finally hits the big screen after a slightly delay of one and a half year. At a BAFTA talk, Craig explained how he got to play this stormtrooper in The Force Awakens, who went uncredited in the movie itself. His designation was only revealed in the video game LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While this designation was later declared official cannon by the Lucasfilm story group, he was only referenced as FN-007 during production.
How did James Bond go about about getting a role in the galaxy far, far away? Turns out, Spectre, the last Bond movie before No Time to Die, was shot in Pinewood Studios, England at the same time as The Force Awakens. One day, when Craig came to Pinewood to do some fitting, he came up to Ben Dixon, who worked as key second unit director for both Spectre and The Fore Awakens, and asked if there was a part for him in this highly anticipated chapter of the Skywalker saga. While Craig did not actually expect an answer, Dixon replied “I’ll go ask JJ.” When he returned, Craig had a role in Star Wars.
His idea was that of a background character.
"Thing was, I thought 'background stormtrooper'. I mean I wanted to do that guy that bumps his head in the original one, you know that person who drops his lightsaber or something.”
Craig would be more than just a background character. He had an entire scene alongside the female lead of the sequel trilogy. The stormtrooper FN-1824 was guarding Rey on board Kylo Ren’s star destroyer after she was captured. In an attempt to escape, Rey tried to use the Jedi mind trick on him. He resisted at first, and tightened her handcuffs. She would succeed on her second try, forcing him to completely release her, and casually drop his weapon on his way out of the cell.
The amount of screen time took Craig by surprise. He was even more shocked when he found out that Abrams would actually use his own voice for the dialogue.
“And we did the scene and then I just thought they'll loop me, they’ll put another voice on it, you know, then I had to spend like three hours with JJ on a looping session like doing all the dialogues. Like really, you want me to do this? Get someone else to do this!"
His cameo did not going completely unnoticed. One person who quickly discovered that someone special was playing this infamous stormtrooper was The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. According to Craig:
"...and Rian says when he saw the movie the first thing he did afterwards was he said, 'who was that [redacted] stormtrooper?' He said he knew it was somebody, whatever. It’s the way I walk, clearly."
Craig also tried to dispel the rumors at first by voicing his opinion about the saga. This caused some backlash from fans when they discovered who was really beneath the armor.
“I mean, I thought I was great to kind of play around with that and everybody kind of started hating on me 'cause I sort of said I didn't like Star Wars and I just was like, 'oh it was so stupid.'"
Even though the role started out as a joke, he joyfully said he was proud to be part of the galaxy far, far away.
“But it was amazing, and I’m in the movie...”
Daniel Craig was not the only celebrity who had a cameo in the Star Wars saga. Tom Hardy also appeared as a stormtrooper in The Last Jedi, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt played an alien named Slowen Lo in the same movie. John Williams had a short moment in front of the camera as a bartender in The Rise of Skywalker. Of course the maker himself, George Lucas, appeared as Baron Notluwiski Papanoida alongside his children Jett, Katie, and Amanda in Revenge of the Sith.
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Source(s): Daily Express