In the hit whodunnit franchise Knives Out, Daniel Craig reprises his role as charismatic if eccentric detective Benoit Blanc in this film.
Bond star Daniel Craig has said his latest film Wake Up Dead Man – the third instalment in the Knives Out films, is sadly very relevant to the ‘scary times’ we live in. “These movies are not whodunnits,” says the 57-year-old actor. “Those are the worst kind of movies.”
Craig’s quirky gentleman-detective Benoit Blanc, complete with his southern drawl, penchant for drama and sharp suits, made his first outing in the smash hit 2019 Netflix film Knives out, which channelled whodunnit queen Agatha Christie’s golden age of crime into a contemporary American setting.
The upcoming film, whose star-studded cast also includes Josh O’Connor, Andrew Scott and Glenn Close, is the follow-up to the second film in the franchise, 2022’s Glass Onions. As Craig admits in an interview with Radio Times, that film – which didn’t receive quite the rapturous reception as its predecessor, saw him criticised for being ‘over the top’.
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“But I make an effort to remind people that’s what he was supposed to be,” he continued. Benoit Blanc was trying to disarm these terrible people, which was the whole point of the movie.
Revealing his inspiration for the eccentric Blanc, Craig calls himself ‘a magpie, like every other actor’ and cites various iconic detectives – from Peter Ustinov’s Poirot to Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express.
In Wake Up Dead Man, whose dark American Gothic setting was actually recreated in Epping Forest, Essex – the actor heaps praise for the performance of co-lead Josh O’Connor, 35, known to UK audiences for The Durrells and The Crown – as Prince Charles.
O’Connor portrays a young Catholic priest named Father Jud Duplenticy, who, like many of the characters in the movie, conceals dark secrets and worked as a boxer before accidentally killing a man in the ring.
Glen Close, who is open about his own success, compares the actor to Jimmy Stewart, who claims he has a “wonderful quality, a goodness that will be a comfort to people,” while Craig simply declares, “Josh is brilliant – you just want him to shine.”
O’Connor credits Craig for landing his role in Wake Up Dead Man , and says the Bond icon is not only an ‘extraordinary’ actor, but surprisingly, gives a fascinating insight when he says, “He’s incredibly full of self-doubt and self-loathing… and constantly saying to me, ‘What do you think about that?’”
“I think part of it is because he’s so confident with Bond. But that’s not at all him. He resembles a boy. He’s a bit of a sweet, insecure, charming, and draws you in. He is fantastic. I admired his efforts.
Wake Up Dead Man sees Blanc take on possibly his trickiest case to date, as he is tasked with solving the seemingly impossible murder of the charismatic yet intimidating Monsignor (Josh Brolin) at a small Catholic Parish in upstate New York.
The cast of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which premiered on Netflix on December 12th, spoke to Radio Times.
