Daniel Craig Was The Only Person Who Couldn't Play Poker In Casino Royale
Before the underrated "Quantum of Solace" (yeah, I said it) made longtime Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson panic, we had a near-perfect 007 film. 2006's "Casino Royale" is easily the best Bond movie, but bringing it to fruition was anything but easy.
Imagine having to reinvent James Bond, a figure who in the early 2000s had been a cultural mainstay for more than 40 years — a figure who'd been reinvented time and time again and whose cultural appeal was arguably lessening as the world moved into the new millennium. Things weren't helped by the fact that 2002's "Die Another Day" was widely regarded as a low point for the long-running franchise, even though some might argue for it, too, being an underrated Bond movie.
In other words, refreshing well-worn IP that was rapidly losing its appeal was never going to be easy, and that wasn't just true in the macro sense. Specific scenes in the movie required a lot of hard work to pull off, such as the free-running themed chase sequence that opens the film. But while that sequence necessitated some well-planned practical effects and stunt work, arguably the toughest scene to shoot was the famous poker game at the center of Ian Flemming's original story — though in the novel it's actually a game of Baccarat. Somehow, director Martin Campbell pulled it off, but not without seriously struggling. Oh, and it didn't help that his James Bond couldn't even play poker.
'A proverbial nightmare'
After some casting controversy surrounding "Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig as their new James Bond, Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, and Martin Campbell were free to introduce a more tortured, rugged version of England's greatest spy. Craig at once brought brawn and vulnerability to the role, reinvigorating the character for a whole new generation. Shame he couldn't play poker though.
The Texas Hold'em game is really the centerpiece of "Casino Royale," pitting Craig's Bond against Mads Mikkelsen's banker to the world's criminals Le Chiffre. The game involves ten players, including Bond, Le Chiffre, and Jeffrey Wright's Felix Leiter competing for a $115 million pot. In order to make sure their actors looked like they knew what they were doing, the producers actually started a "poker school," designed to train the players enough to make it at least look like they were all pros.
But despite all the prep work that went into this pivotal scene, actually shooting it was somewhat of an ordeal. In a behind-the-scenes featurette, director Martin Campbell stepped away from the set to deliver this report, "I have to say it's a proverbial nightmare because it's poker and there are ten people around a table and they've all got hands and they're all playing cards and it's very difficult." Continuity was a big problem, too, with the crew having to ensure the number of cards and chips in front of each player stayed consistent between takes. And on top of that, James Bond himself was pretty much clueless when it came to actually playing Poker.
Craig had bigger things on his mind than poker
Speaking to GQ, Mads Mikkelsen revealed that during shooting on "Casino Royale," he and members of the cast and crew would actually games of poker, and that he had been playing for some time. He added:
"I played a lot of poker since I was a kid, so the game was not new to me [...] Everybody knew how to play poker around that table, except for one. Daniel. He had no clue. He sucked. It was the worst thing ever that he of all people had to beat me and win all my money."
Not only did Daniel Craig not play poker, he didn't once get involved in the cast and crew games to try to improve his skills. In a conversation between the two stars for Variety, Craig responded to Mikkelsen's recollection of him eschewing the games by saying, "What you were asking me to do was to go off set and relax and I was so not able to do that."
Though it may seem like Craig was being a little cold, the guy had about as much pressure on his shoulders as an actor could have. Not only was this his first big lead role, it was James Bond. Craig was being asked to not only take on a character with huge cultural notoriety but was being asked to reinvent him — which he did, often directly influencing how scenes were shot by putting his foot down about avoiding Bond clichés. Somehow, just as Martin Campbell managed to get through the "nightmare" that was the poker game, Craig managed to pull it off.