Behind every superstar Hollywood A-lister like Daniel Craig is a long history of embarrassing foot ointment commercials and bit parts in soap operas. We all have to start somewhere, and for practically everyone bar the Harry Potter cast, that somewhere is at the bottom of the heap.
When you first break into the movie industry, it’s very rarely as a main starring role. More often it’s the lifeless corpse being peed on by the main character’s wacky hobo sidekick or something. Even to get to that stage you have to be ‘innocent bystander #17’ in an episode of Midsomer Murders.It can be quite funny looking back at a star’s career – especially one playing James Bond, the coolest, suavest and slickest guy around – and seeing the slightly less glamorous roles that set him up to be who he is now. Daniel Craig’s no exception; he’s had his share of dud roles throughout his career.
A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1992)
James Bond was in a Disney film. There you have it. Career ruined. Hilariously, the film currently has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a surefire way to know that you have a stinker on your hands. Craig played a character called Master Kane, and sadly he’s the one in the background, not the foreground, of this picture.
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)
A shitty made-for-TV film by the BBC, this saw Craig play George Dyer, a small time thief and associate of Francis Bacon (played by Derek Jacobi). It seems that Love is the Devil is most notable for this scene of Daniel Craig in baggy white y-fronts that look more like an adult diaper.
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Dardevils of the Desert (1999)
‘Young’ anything is a surefire indication that you’re in a dudtastic film (‘Young Frankenstein’ excepted). And sure it was with this sterling performance by Craig, complete with terrible fake moustache and some sort of prototypical duckface. His role: Schiller. That’s literally it. One name.
Some Voices (2000)
Daniel Craig plays a mop-topped schizophrenic called Ray in what is basically a romcom. Who’d have thunk it? James Bond being a soppy, vulnerable romantic lead with terrible hair?
Fateless (2005)
You know, I find it incredible that just 5 years before playing Bond Daniel Craig was hamming it up as ‘US soldier’ in films like Fateless. He doesn’t even have a character name! He’s barely on screen! He’s just sort of there, sitting in the background. Then a few years later he’s thrust into the front of a franchise that is bigger than almost any other. That’s the joy of Hollywood, friends. That right there.