Your Shot: Miles Jay on Pitching Daniel Craig Against James Bond

Miles and Daniel

Everyone wants to be James Bond. Right? At least, that's how the old trope goes. But think about it. Do you really want all that aggro? Yes it may sound glam but being James Bond would be a constant drag, an endless stream of being shot and falling off big buildings and hurting yourself and being rejected by obscenely attractive women before inevitably having them fall deeply, deeply in love with you.

Daniel Craig embodies all of those woes in this brilliantly produced, amusing Heineken ad from Publicis and SMUGGLER director Miles Jay. The annoyance of losing his phone leads to a Bond style chase to hunt it down, no matter how hard he tries to normalise the process and not live life as his on-screen secret agent character. It's quite a simple concept really but in the hands of Miles and with Daniel down to make some fun of himself, it's a total hoot.

LBB's Addison Capper chatted with him to find out more.

LBB> Possibly a silly question, but what was it about this project that made you keen to get involved?

Miles> A meeting with Daniel Craig. Hard to say no.

LBB> A big challenge here is that it needs to *feel* like Bond but with the whimsy of Daniel Craig trying to be himself in this world. How did you strike that balance as a director? What was on your mind with regards to this?

Miles> The story was always told through the lens of this is Daniel, but the world wants to see him as Bond. The tension is the humour in-between.

LBB> How did you find the challenge of creating your own Bond film? How did it influence your approach as a director?

Miles> I was making a film about Daniel, but wanted to use the absurdity of the ‘70s Bond films to play with the tropes of him being stuck in that character.

LBB> How was Daniel to work with? What kind of conversations were you having with him on set?

Miles> Daniel was a dream to work with. We had extensive conversations before shooting, so when we were on set he let me take the lead and guide him through it. He was very playful which I hope translates to the final product.

LBB> There are lots of brilliant little happenings within the film - the band messing up its tune, the old men, the dodgy money counting in the laundry room. Was the creative process like on those elements? Was it mostly from the creative or did you have the chance to add stuff in yourself?

Miles> The agency came to me with the idea of Daniel being mistaken as Bond. Then I wrote a draft with Daniel and then the agency added their thoughts onto that. Those ideas came from both sides.

LBB> Do you have a favourite moment?

Miles> I love Daniel trying to speak spanish. He did that on his own.

LBB> Where did you shoot? It's beautiful. And what was the production like?

Miles> We shot in a castle north of Barcelona. We scouted castles/mansions in the Spanish countryside for 10 days. It wasn’t too shabby.

LBB> Aside from it allowing Daniel to shut himself away, is there any particular reason that Daniel has such a low-tech phone?

Miles> Daniel chooses to use a 2G phone in real life to avoid the smartphone addiction. So I wanted to be true to that detail.