Actor moves beyond Bond

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The time off from James Bond has been very good to Daniel Craig.

In the three years since the release of “Quantum of Solace,” Craig has made his Broadway debut (“A Steady Rain”); starred in the World War II-era tale of Jewish rebellion, “Defiance”; joined up with Steven Spielberg again (“The Adventures of Tintin,” following their earlier collaboration in “Munich”); and starred in the summer blockbuster “Cowboys & Aliens.” Now, he’s added yet another major franchise to his plate, with David Fincher’s remake of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

At this point, the early misgivings of the “Blond Bond” seem laughable. Craig has emerged as one of the biggest British movie stars. More than that, he’s already managed to prove that — maybe more than any previous guardian of the tuxedoed spy — he won’t be pigeonholed by the role. Craig has not just grown into Bond, but, perhaps, beyond it.

“It’s a very fortunate time for me at the moment,” Craig said in a recent interview. “So I’m just trying to grab it with both hands.”

Though the 43-year-old actor is known for being careful of his privacy, Craig, dressed casually in a jean jacket and jeans, comes across as relaxed. Self-deprecation is his fallback, and he often chortles sheepishly at his own wit. Though his screen presence is bleak and still, his manner is more loose and jocular. He meets a reporter in the lobby of a New York hotel for a recent interview, but Craig isn’t visiting — this is his hometown now.

“It was one of those decisions in my life where it was like going, ‘I want to be here.’ Thankfully, I’ve got very good reasons,” he says, presumably alluding to his wife Rachel Weisz and her 4-year-old son. Craig and Weisz (his co-star in Jim Sheridan’s horror flick “Dream House,” released earlier this year) wed privately in June. He has a teenage daughter from an early marriage.