Daniel Craig Opens Up About Agony Of Shooting Scene With Broken Leg

Daniel Craig has opened up about the agony of shooting a James Bond scene with a broken leg.

The actor's much-anticipated final outing as 007 finally hits cinemas on Thursday (30 September), so not long now until we get to see what scrapes he's gotten himself into.

But before this, while shooting 2015's Spectre, Craig went through excruciating pain filming with a broken leg.

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The 53-year-old sustained the injury on set but delayed his operation so the show could go on.

Speaking on ITV's Being James Bond documentary, he said: "I had a lot of fun on that movie but part of the problem was that I broke my leg.

"We had to choose whether we could shut down for nine months and I could have an operation, or I could crack on with the movie. I didn't want to shut down.

"So I wore a bionic leg for the rest of the film, which was not the greatest way to do a Bond movie. It was massively distracting for me.

"At the beginning of the movie I was walking on a ledge 100ft above a Mexico City street, I am literally going, 'Don't give, don't give way'.

"I have a wire on, but it is very traumatic. I am trying to be cool but my leg is shot."

Producer Barbara Broccoli added: "He was in excruciating pain... he could barely walk.

"I was just looking at him and thinking, 'I don't know how he is actually managing this'."

Craig said the injury was part of the reason he thought he may never do another Bond movie.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2020, he said: "I finished that movie with a broken leg.

"I had to question myself, was I physically capable of doing [another one] or did I want to do another one? Because that phone call to your wife saying 'I've broken my leg' is not pleasant."

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Craig said hurting himself is 'par for the course' when shooting Bond films, and sure enough, his last outing was no different.

He said: "I was running down a floating dock, and it was wet, and I slipped, and I fell over, and my ankle exploded.

"Unfortunately, I've been in the same situation before and I know the feeling of a rupturing tendon. I was just like, 'Oh, f***.'

"I've got a great surgeon in London who said, '[Have this operation] and you'll be ready to run in 10 weeks.'

"You know, 10 weeks is sometimes the length of a movie shoot. Not on a Bond movie. It's just a small part of it. So I was like, 'OK, let's do this.'

"I was back at work in two weeks, and in 10 weeks I was throwing myself around like an idiot again."

You can watch Being James Bond on the ITV Hub.

Topics: TV and Film, UK Entertainment, James Bond

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey