So it turns out that Daniel Craig has actually been playing James Bond against his will. Far from the the joyful role that anyone with an eye on acting profile and a shed load (dimensions to be determined) of cash would be after, the British actor actually said that he was not really up for playing the world famous fictional government agent. Poor Dan.

“I was very reluctant to say yes to Bond,” he said on a taping of The Graham Norton Show in the UK. “I couldn’t understand why I was being asked. It was off my radar. It was a very nice offer but I thought they had the wrong guy. They were quite persistent.” By persistent, we presume he means that Columbia Pictures followed him round in high speed car chases that flouted all sorts of highway code laws, held him captive at one stage lowering him slowly before a tank of piranhas, and generally pursued him in other incidents that caused all sorts of collateral damage and possible loss of life to bystanders. That or they just added a few more zeroes onto the end of the contract.

Craig also went on to describe the screen test he took for the role, according to The Radio Times. It didn’t involve killing a real life terrorist, but it did involve, um, taking his shirt off.  “I had to do an all-day screen test. You have to do a scene from From Russia with Love” he said. “It was nerve-wracking, but I did that and then I had to take my shirt off for some odd reason – I don’t know what that was about!” If only we’d known Daniel, we’d have saved you the terrible ordeal of all that fame and attention first time round.