Eva Green’s Casino Royale Casting Stressed Out Everyone Except Daniel Craig – /Film

Director Martin Campbell recalled how the initial screen test between Eva Green and Daniel Craig threw up a problem, saying that Green had “quite a heavy accent on her English.” According to the director, the actor promised she could lose the accent and project an upper-class English tone once she started work. Still, the issue proved stressful for everyone involved, as the producers thought they’d finally landed their ideal Vesper, only to be taken aback by how thick her native intonation was. As the actor explained:

“There was some mumbling at the screen test, that’s not a good sign, then I went to New York, four days after, and my agent called me and said, actually you have to come back straight away to Prague and audition again, because they’re not fully satisfied. So, I was crying. It’s very stressful, and I didn’t know what was wrong, but they eventually said, ‘It’s just the English, darling; you just have to work on the English.'”

As it turns out, Daniel Craig was instrumental in getting Green the part. The Bond actor claimed that “when [Green] came in, there was no decision for me. She brings something to it that’s great.” According to Barbara Broccoli, it was Craig who said, “Oh, we’ve got to have her.” Craig also put his foot down during filming, ensuring one of the most important scenes remained true to the characters of Bond and Lynd.

In Green’s view, however, her casting delay was about more than her accent. She said, “I’m sure it was not really that; it’s always a pretext, they’re not sure, they just want to be, you know, certain.” After decades of laborious casting, then, it seems the producers were just eager to give Green the authentic James Bond casting experience.