Finding someone in your garden at three o'clock in the morning with a meat cleaver and a hard-on can't be much fun 
Since his TV debut in Our Friends In The North in 1996, British actor Daniel Craig has made a name for himself in smouldering yet cerebral roles on the big screen. After an ill-advised romp with Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, he hit form with Road To Perdition and bagged leading roles in Sylvia and Layer Cake as a result. Now he's reunited with Roger Michell - whom he worked with on last year's The Mother - to play an academic who is stalked by an obsessive Rhys Ifans, in a sharp adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love.
Roger Michell also directed you in The Mother. Do you enjoy the challenge that his films offer?
Well, there are two things. There's Roger and the appeal of working with him is that it's terribly rewarding. He employs you because he trusts in your talent. He knows that you have ability and what he does is he manipulates it and sort of empowers you. The other thing is they are challenging roles. Also, we wouldn't start working unless the script was right. That's the most important thing with Roger. And the script was absolutely bang on. I don't know, I can't say enough about him. If we could start a film tomorrow, I would love it. Actually, we're going to do a third one. That's the plan.
The phenomenon of stalking is something that comes up quite frequently in your profession. Is it something that you have had experience of?
No it's not. I don't think so anyway. They're very good if they are there. But I do know people that have stalkers and it's not nice.
How do they deal with it?
Court injunctions, bodyguards, the lot - depending on the stalker. Some stalkers are quite benign, but finding someone in your garden at three o'clock in the morning with a meat cleaver and a hard-on can't be much fun.
What was it like kissing Rhys Ifans?
We took the piss out of each other all the way through filming. We were going, "Three days to go. Two days to go..." Rhys was wearing these cracked plastic teeth so it was bizarre when we did it. But it was fine. We filmed it at the end and by the time we got there we were into the groove of things. But it was just a kiss, nothing more. Honest!
Do you know what's happening to Vengeance, Spielberg's film about the 1972 Munich massacre, in which you have been cast?
It's happening next year; at least so the man himself tells me.
Are you excited?
It's terrifying really. The subject matter is very tricky. It's about the Munich massacre and what Mossad did afterwards with the assassination squads. I think it's a turning point in history, especially for the Palestinians. The conversations I've had about it - because I was very wary about it - make me think it's really worth making.
Whose side will you be on?
There's no real side to be on because I think it was a mess. Certainly some of Mossad's actions were deplorable and the exploration is not to find blame but to actually explain and understand the situation and the idea of revenge, which is just continuous. Revenge doesn't stop.
Spielberg is going to have to be very careful, given his links to the Holocaust Foundation.
He's incredibly aware of that and that's why he wants to get it right. He certainly doesn't want it to be superficial.
