How tough was it, directing a Bond movie?
It's not as tough as you'd think. The toughest thing comes from knowing what's come before. You know, there's been 19 movies, we're all well aware of them. It's great to be offered an opportunity to make a Bond movie, I really just loved it. All I wanted to do was just make a great Bond movie and not the worst Bond movie. It's a huge legacy and you're very aware of the history of it, and it's great to be part of it and to enter into what is cinematic folklore, really. It's great fun - even though it nearly killed me, it's still great fun. I think it's supposed to nearly kill you.
Did you have any embarrassing moments on the shoot?
Every single day, mostly to do with myself, and I'm not going to reveal them. You have to turn up in front of a crew of several hundred and you're expected to know what's going on and you're scratching your head and going, "Jesus, this scene doesn't work at all, what am I going to do now? Quick! Hide this from the actors, hide it from everyone, you don't know what you're doing here at all, make it up as you go along." It's much harder to do that on a Bond movie, you actually do have to meticulously plan these movies, but I'm here to tell you that every director who's ever made one of these movies, me included, sometimes turned up and goes, "What are we doing here? It's all wrong." It's the same on small movies, and you do have to risk it otherwise you leave your actors hanging out there.
Does anything you've ever done compare to the media circus you have to go through to promote Bond?
Yeah, well, I've done about five press junkets, but there's nothing quite like a Bond press junket, especially in the United States, where it's an extremely well-oiled machine. I've never seen anything like it, it just floored me completely. Having said that, it's a machine for a reason. People really like these movies, it's not just a driven machine - let's just jam as many people into a room as possible, people are really fascinated by this genre. They're fascinated by its longevity, how it's managed to last this long, and they really like it. There's not many people who come along with negative attitudes about it.
