Former James Bond star Daniel Craig plays “himself” in a recent commercial for Belvedere Vodka, directed by Academy Award winner Taika Waititi.
The ad quickly went viral and now has more than 4.1 million views on YouTube. Set at the Cheval Blanc Paris hotel, the commercial tracks the Knives Out star as he walks through the hotel lobby, slowly undressing. Craig then starts dancing to the Rita Ora and Giggs' song, moving around the hotel pool, in the elevator and finally his hotel room.
Belvedere have officially sponsored the Bond franchise since 2014, and they could have easily made a commercial themed around the spy movies, “It felt almost lazy to go like, ‘Daniel, can you hold a martini?’” Waititi told GQ. “I was happy to not even have to entertain that very long."
Why Daniel Craig And Taika Waititi Wanted To Do The Unexpected
Oscar-winning writer and director Taika Waititi admits that he really wanted to avert expectations and not do the obvious with Daniel Craig.
“There was sort of the fun of playing with [what] people expect, like ‘Oh, we’re going to make some high-class thing in Paris and it’s in black and white, very pretentious, like the beginning of a French noir film’ or something. It was just about having fun with the form, and making sure that we never really took any of it too seriously,” the New Zealand born director explained.
“I think it’s great when they can be a little irreverent, and bust out of the mould of what everyone expects. It’s just nice to do something where it’s like, ‘Oh, is this the real Daniel? Maybe this is a different version of Daniel than we’ve ever seen?’"
Craig said filming the promotional video was a way of freeing himself from his role as Bond. At the end of the advert, he sighs “finally” which he hoped fans understood as a goodbye to the character.
“When I read the script, I thought, ‘Hmm, really?’ ” he told The Sunday Times. “Then I thought, ‘Let’s go with it. I hope people get the gag.’”
Was Daniel Craig A Good Dancer In The Taika Waititi Commercial?
When he came up with the idea, Taika Waititi had no idea if Danirl Craig could dance or not. "It’s risky – what do you do if you find out he can’t dance?” he added. “I mean, luckily he can.”
Craig had some help with the routine from Beyoncé’s legendary choreographer JaQuel Knight. “He just was great and he wasn’t cynical about it, and he wasn’t reticent,” Taika explained “He just leaned straight in.”
Craig admitted it was difficult to get the choreography, “It was hard work because I don’t dance. So, the fact is, we had an amazing choreographer to JaQuel Knight who came in and I worked with him for a couple of days,” he said.
“I just went for it. You don’t get chances like that very often. In for a penny, in for a pound.”
The Layer Cake actor added that while filming the video, Daniel Craig was reminded of his grandmother. “When I did it, I thought of my nana. She was the voice in my head, saying, ‘Mutton dressed as lamb’,” he said.
Taika Waititi's Involvement In The Ad
Taika Waititi doesn't just direct the ad, he also makes an appearance at the end of the commercial. He hams up the role of the haughty director, playing an exaggerated version of himself.
“It was never really established that I would do that little cameo until we were shooting and then Daniel said, ‘It’s got to be you, man,’” the Jojo Rabbit director explained. “He actually convinced me to do it. They had some spare suits, and I threw one on.”
“It’s just nice to make fun of what people think directors do, especially in things like this, being hand fed sushi. It’s so unglamorous what we [actually] do. Like, I’ve spent the last 10 years eating more lukewarm food out of cardboard boxes in Burbank, so any chance I can get to try and continue this myth that it’s a glamorous job, I’ll try and do that through things like this,” he told GQ.
He admits that plating an exaggerated version of himself, gave him so much perspective. “I got into this to go travel the world and get out of New Zealand,” Waititi explained.
“And [I’ve] found myself like a lot of the time in studios in Sydney and in places where I’m just looking at a big blue screen and I could’ve just been in any warehouse anywhere in New Zealand, so to be able to go to Paris and shoot something outside on the Parisian streets was really special. Like, ‘Oh that’s right, this can be a really fun job.’”
How Rita Ora Inspired Daniel Craig's Look In The Taika Waititi-Directed Ad
Taika Waititi's wife, popstar, Rita Ora helped Craig's transformation for the commercial. Thanks to the British singer, Daniel Craig wore a set of monogrammed “DC” diamond grills.
“You know, Rita, she’s a big fan of these grills,” Waititi explained. “Because she did the music for the piece, they took a bit of inspiration from some of the photos [of her] two grills—well, she’s got a lot of grills—and then they made these DC ones for him from the same place that she gets her ones.”
Rita also collaborated with Giggs to create an original song for the Daniel Craig-led commercial.“Often I forget that I’m with someone who’s very talented and knows a s***load about music,” Waititi laughed, “because, you know, she’s got the personality of the person that is my everyday life, and then there’s the person who spends hours and hours in a studio and knows how to create and put songs together, knows all the tricks, knows what things should sound like, knows who to call to get Giggs to come in and rap on the piece."
"She did her thing and it was amazing from the start.” he added, “I feel like I’m such a meddler with everything, and I feel like I have to second guess everyone and micromanage everything when it comes to directing things. To not have to do that at all was very different for me. It’s not because she’s my partner, it’s because she understood the brief and knew exactly what we wanted, and just went and did it.”
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