Accidents are a part and parcel of film production, and they seem to happen quite often on the sets of action flicks. While most of the time, on-set injuries tend to halt production for weeks and months, it was our beloved Bond actor Daniel Craig, who braved through one of his severe accidents, to carry on production for Spectre.
Although the James Bond franchise has left Daniel Craig with his fair share of injuries, it was while shooting his 2015 movie Spectre, that the actor sustained permanent damage to his knee. During a fight scene with Dave Bautista, Craig underwent severe damage that later required him to have surgery. However, despite the intensity of the injury, the actor worked through the pain to avoid a six-month delay in production.
Daniel Craig was Left Permanently Injured While Shooting Spectre
For decades, the James Bond franchise has been known for its brilliant storyline, iconic action sequences, and its use of practical effects rather than relying on CGI. However, while the action scene with practical effects offers intense realism, it also poses the threat of severe and sometimes life-ending injuries.
Something similar happened to Daniel Craig while filming his 2015 James Bond installment Spectre. Being synonymous with the spy franchise, Craig had often endured severe injuries throughout his tenure as Bond. However, none of those injuries turned out to be as severe as the one he sustained while fighting Dave Bautista.
According to Looper, Daniel Craig was filming a fight scene with the hulking villain Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista), when he suddenly hurt his knee. Considering how he often underwent stunt injuries, Craig initially paid no heed to the accident. However, he later realized that this time it was evidently severe and posed a greater risk.
Despite his fair share of wounds on the set of James Bond, Daniel Craig’s accident while filming Spectre, left him permanently injured. This accident unfortunately required Craig to undergo surgery which threatened to halt filming for six months. But the actor didn’t want to wait and therefore, pushed through pain to complete shooting.
Daniel Craig Later Needed Arthroscopic Surgery to Repair His Injury
As per British GQ’s extensive list of injuries sustained by Daniel Craig on the set of James Bond, the actor had unfortunately torn his ACL while fighting with former professional wrestler Dave Bautista. Further, pushing through pain and completing the filming process instead of attending to his injury, left Craig permanently injured, despite undergoing surgery.
Daniel Craig later told Empire magazine (via DailyMail) how he didn’t want to stop production and therefore continued shooting despite the damage. Eventually, after Craig completed shooting the sequence, the production was only temporarily stopped for two weeks to allow the actor to recover.
This has been a two-year process. Since we began talking about the script, it gets to this point and you say: “We can shut down for six months and you can go have surgery and come back then. I was like: ‘F*** that. I don’t give a f***. Stick two planks of wood on it and I’ll f***ing crack on’.
After shooting the sequence, Daniel Craig underwent surgery, during the Easter filming break, to repair an injury he sustained while filming action scenes. According to The Guardian, a spokeswoman for Eon Productions revealed that Craig needed arthroscopic surgery to fix the injury.
During a scheduled break, Daniel Craig had arthroscopic surgery to repair his knee injury. He will rejoin production on 22 April at Pinewood.
Eventually, Daniel Craig’s dedication towards the project paid off, as Spectre earned $880M at the worldwide box office, against its $245M estimated budget (via The Numbers). Although the 2015 film only managed to earn a 63% RT rating, it became an overall box office success, given that Spectre earned 3.6 times the production budget.
Spectre is available on Prime Video.
