They might have played hated enemies in the phenomenally successful 50th anniversary James Bond movie, but Skyfall co-stars Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem are close friends in real life. In fact, the duo loves to goof around together so much that it turns out Bardem dressed up as a Bond girl and jumped out of a cake to celebrate Craig’s birthday during production on the 2012 flick.
While reflecting on the hilarious moment in the latest interview as part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Craig recalled that the pair decided to hold a joint birthday party attended by the cast and crew that year as their birthdays are actually only a day apart (Bardem’s is March 1 while Craig’s is March 2). At this event that we’re all bitter we didn’t get to attend, Bardem surprised the future Knives Out actor with his Marilyn Monroe impression.
“I remember you were in drag, but I know that’s a whole other story,” Craig said, to which Bardem explained: “Coming out of a cake. I was supposed to be the Bond girl that night, and oh, my God, I was.”
In his latest movie, Being the Ricardos, Bardem had to sing on screen to portray Desi Arnaz, the frontman of the Desi Arnaz Orchestra. The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales star admitted that his only prior experience of singing in public like that was his special appearance at the Skyfall birthday bash.
“Well, [I’m not musical], apart from coming out of birthday cakes dressed like a Bond girl,” Bardem added. “I sang ‘Happy Birthday to You’ in my best Marilyn Monroe impersonation.”
Seeing as Skyfall came out almost a whole decade ago now, it’s shocking that we’ve never heard about this hysterical incident before now. It’s kind of perfect that it happened, though, as it’s somewhat easy to imagine Bardem’s character Raoul Silva actually doing something similar in the film, what with his flirtatious personality and OTT antics. Except Silva would probably try to gun Bond down after leaping out the cake.
Daniel Craig will next be seen in Knives Out 2, hitting Netflix later this year.