Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie, No Time to Die, is about to release in cinemas, marking the first film in the 007 franchise to arrive since 2015’s Spectre. That one saw Craig’s super-spy come up against brutal henchman Mr. Hinx, as played by Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista. The duo shared a memorably wince-inducing fight scene set on a train, which actually resulted in both actors picking up injuries in real life.
Craig recounted the experience during a recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show. The Knives Out actor explained that he encouraged Bautista to really go for it during their fight, which resulted in the ex-wrestler throwing him against a wall, leaving him needing surgery on his knee. Once Craig had recovered and they resumed shooting, Craig himself didn’t hold back and accidentally landed a fierce punch on Bautista’s nose, breaking it.
“I heard this crack. And I went ‘Oh God no!’ and ran away, because I thought he was going to come after me,” Craig joked. You can see his full anecdote via the video above.
Bautista has taken to social media to correct one aspect of Craig’s telling of the incident, though, restoring Craig’s tough-guy reputation in the process. Bautista made clear that his co-star was joking when he said he ran away and the pair actually laughed about what happened instead.
“He did not run!!!” Bautista said, with a crying laughing emoji. “He started screaming “Fuck I broke his nose!!” And he did. And then he hugged me, apologized, we laughed, I changed clothes, shoved TP up my nose and we continued to make one of the best fight scenes ever. Very proud of it. And I love me some DC #DreamChaser.”
It just shows what professionals Craig and Bautista are that they both roughed each other pretty badly during the shooting of this fight scene, and yet they both still get on so well and hold no grudges. It’s likely that the pair had a good time working together again, then, on their latest movie – Rian Johnson’s untitled Knives Out sequel, in which Craig’s reprising his role as detective Benoit Blanc, with Bautista playing an unknown part. The film wrapped filming in Greece earlier this month and set to eventually release on Netflix.
No Time to Die is out in US theaters on October 8th. Meanwhile, catch Dave Bautista in Dune, out on October 22nd.
