I’ve never really had a desire to do Shakespeare. For me, it’s just too many lines.

We agreed to do it when I was drunk at his house one night, then on the day I had to have four large brandies – they didn’t touch the sides at all. People just got on with it though. It didn’t gather a crowd!

It’s not like I was trying to be sexy but I had to get fit because I had to be able to do stunts. Also I wanted that, if Bond took his clothes off, he looked like a man who did what he did, which was kill people for a living. I thought the only way to do that was to work out and get fit and buff and get physically into shape.

Being on your own would be sad, sick and weird. I don’t trust myself. I need that balance.

Any voices or fantasies, he lives with. Those are his everyday life things.

I’ve never really had a desire to do Shakespeare. For me, it’s just too many lines.

I find it very easy playing Bond. I think he’s hilarious. He gets himself into some extraordinarily funny situations.

The idea of regretting not doing this seemed insane to me. Sitting in the corner at a bar at age 60, saying: ‘I could’ve been Bond. Buy me a drink.’ That’s the saddest place I could be. At least now at 60 I can say: ‘I was Bond. Now buy me a drink.’

I know in my life there’s stuff that will come back because I haven’t dealt with it, and it’s the same with everybody.

There’s no real side to be on because I think it was a mess.

Sexiness, particularly in movies, is the chess game in the ‘Thomas Crown Affair’. It’s, it’s, I don’t know, but Faye Dunaway comes up a lot in that thinking. It’s the subtlety of sexiness. The moment you try to be sexy, then it’s not.

But I do know people that have stalkers and it’s not nice.

The subject matter is very tricky. It’s about the Munich massacre and what Mossad did afterwards with the assassination squads. I think it’s a turning point in history, especially for the Palestinians.

As soon as someone tells me: ‘You’re rather sexy,’ I wish I could disappear. If somebody says: ‘You were voted the world’s sexiest man,’ I have no idea what that means. How do I respond? ‘Thank you’ is the best you can do. George Clooney is the world’s sexiest man, anyway.

I just felt that you can’t have a character fall in love so madly as they did in the last movie and not finish it off, understand it, get some closure. That’s why the movie is called ‘Quantum of Solace’ – that’s exactly what he’s looking for.

There’s a passion about this because people take it very close to their hearts and they have grown up with James Bond – and so have I. But I was being criticized before I had presented anything, so it was name calling.

He knows that you have ability and what he does is he manipulates it and sort of empowers you.

It’s a huge challenge, a huge responsibility. Bond is a huge iconic figure in movie history. These opportunities don’t come along very often so I thought, ‘Why not?’

I didn’t want to do a zoo show. I didn’t want to do a study of someone with mental illness. I just wanted to show someone who was trying to live their life.

It’s a Tim sandwich. The meat is fresh, but the bread is moldy.