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Quite possibly the hottest British actor of the moment, Daniel Craig's star - which was on a fast ascent even before 2006's Bond revival Casino Royale - is currently shining so bright that it's hard to pin him down. Hard, that is, unless he's supporting Flashbacks of a Fool, a film he's so passionate about he's taken time off from filming Quantum of Solace to promote. Craig plays Joe Scot, a fading Hollywood star who has managed to coast through life with no care for anyone he steps on to succeed. When his childhood friend, nicknamed Boots, dies, he realises what he's missed out on. RT sat down with Craig to learn more.

You've got what I imagine is a rare day off from Quantum of Solace and you've chosen to spend it talking to us about Flashbacks of a Fool. What does the film mean to you?

Daniel Craig: It's been very personal, really. The fact is that Baillie Walsh, the director, is my best mate and he wrote the script six years ago with me in mind. There are a lot of reasons for it - it's a lot to do with who he is and how we both look at life in the sense that if you don't deal with certain things when you're a kid they'll come back and get you. I believe in Baillie as a moviemaker. He's done two feature-length documentaries plus any number of music videos and commercials and it's kind-of about time he got to do a feature.

So was it about using whatever clout you could to help him get the project off the ground? We noticed the Executive Producer credit.

DC: Definitely; it was a really important stage to go through, for me. It's no great leap for me, what my job entails really on a job like this is to talk to people and say, "Do you mind spending some money? I believe in this, I believe in this director, we've got a great cast, a great, DoP, a great crew; I think we can make a great movie." It's not a huge leap because I end up doing that anyway on films! I'm unofficially launching the movie, going and talking to people and getting them to invest and support it. Once we started filming I just got on with the acting.



Was there perhaps a personal interest in playing Joe Scot at that stage of his career?

DC: [laughs] Why, because he's fading?! The fact that he's a movie star is really secondary I think. He's a lonely man in a big house, he's got everything he wants and he could have anything he wants. He could have a career, but he's pushed it all away. He doesn't feel he needs anything, when what he needs is good friendship and what he needs is the support of people who genuinely love him as opposed to the support of those who genuinely don't love him. And it's staring him in the face, his mother and her girlfriend, who on the face of it seem dysfunctional, are actually good family, and he's got this lady Ophelia who's looking after him and is probably the love of his life and would sacrifice everything for him. It's all there and he's fucking it up, that's really all it boils down to. I like that idea - I like that he's having to take care of business.

Do you see contemporaries of yours falling into that trap?

DC: I've been around, I've seen a lot in my life, and everybody goes down the dark, winding staircase eventually. It's a bad place to be and that's why having good friends is always essential. Those are the people who pull you out. But it happens to everyone in every profession and you have to deal with it. Joe is an alcoholic drug addict and for an evening he's probably great entertainment and fantastic to be with, but to live with it's a nightmare, and that's the reality of it. It's showing that, but it's saying, "the reality of this is something else." But that's not really where the movie lies.

What keeps you grounded?

DC: Friends and family, who tell me what an arsehole I am! [laughs]



Do you recognise that period of Joe's childhood in your own life?

DC: It's not similar, but certainly the music was familiar and I too grew up near the sea - though it wasn't quite the Southern Cape [which filled in for the English coast]. It was important in the movie to have that memory of a place. I grew up by the seaside, there were arcades, it resonates for me, certainly. Baillie grew up by the sea too - he was the guy on the Wurlitzer spinning you around and making you sick. It's a mixture of things exploded. Ideas from childhood as opposed to very specific points. The little girl dying is that impetus that sends Joe off on his way because he can't escape the guilt. His sexual awakening ties in with this little girl dying. It's not an excuse to be a fucked-up human being, but it's a good excuse to have problems.

What brought you and Baillie together, originally?

DC: We have a mutual friend in John Maybury, and I met Baillie on the set of Love is the Devil, and we've just been mates ever since.