Casino Royale had some big action set pieces, but Quantum of Solace is just action scene after action scene. Was it hard to maintain that pace?
No, it was what I wanted. I want it to feel like a bullet. It starts and it keeps you on the edge of your seat until the last frame. I wanted to juxtapose it to Casino Royale and make sort of a different movie, in that sense.

Daniel Craig said that you and he hit it off right away—did you, pardon the pun, bond over Bond, or was it something else?
We both come from independent cinema and we have very similar aesthetics and sensitivities, how we see movies. It's different than with any other movie because usually I create characters from scratch and cast all of the roles myself. Here, I inherited a cast of Judi Dench, Daniel, and Giancarlo Giannini, so it was essential to really connect because if we hadn't, I would not have been able to make the film I wanted to do. And we know that Daniel's interpretation of the role obviously worked in the last one; the humanization, the three-dimensionality. So when we met and sat down, I really wanted to include him in the script and character development, because I knew, unless both of us were on the same page, we wouldn't be able to make the best movie we could.

I read somewhere that the original ending of Quantum was supposed to take place in the Alps and yet, in the final film, you literally end things in the exact opposite place—the desert. Why did you feel that was a necessary change?
Yeah, [screenwriter] Paul Haggis sort of wanted to end it in the Alps and then I changed all that because I felt like the desert is a much better symbol for Bond because it's isolating. It's lonely. I've never seen a Bond film set in the desert. I've seen them set in the Alps so many times, so in that sense I feel like it's, for me, much more interesting.

Every guy wants to be Bond, but that's obviously impossible. How can we at least fake it?
You know, I think it's much easier to fake Bond and relate to him now with Daniel Craig than it used to be, because he once was this perfect hero and you could never even touch that world. But I think the first step probably is to get on a treadmill. [laughs] Take some spinning classes. But, apart from him being in such good shape, there is an emotional life to it. And I think men in general today are struggling with [that] because the role of the man has shifted so much. Should we be sensitive? Emotional? Can a man cry or should we just be this hard, tough guy? It used to be very clear. Men are tough. We are the men.

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We are the caretakers. But the role of the woman has shifted, and that comes in with [Olga Kurylenko's character] Camille. She's not your typical Bond girl. She's sort of the mirror image to Bond. She's tough and out for revenge herself. So, first I think nobody should aspire to be Bond because he's a total emotional mess. [laughs] He's totally unbalanced. He doesn't know how to relate to women. He doesn't know how to express himself. And he goes on a rampage killing people. I don't think much of aspiring to be bond, but if one does, apart from being in the physical shape, one shouldn't forget also to have an emotional life because I think Bond does have that. And you have to be able to drink six martinis and feel like you're not drunk.

Without spoiling things, the movie has a death scene that's a cool visual nod to Goldfinger—were there other old Bond films that you went back to for inspiration?
Yeah, I looked at some of the ones that I loved the most: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Goldfinger, Dr. No, and From Russia, With Love.

Do you remember the first Bond film you ever saw?
It was one of the Timothy Dalton ones in the late '80s. Yeah, it was probably the wrong one to start the series with. [laughs] And then, you know, later in the '90s, I started watching them all, sort of from the beginning.

Would you be up for doing another Bond film and, if so, are there specific things that you would really like to tackle?
They offered me the next one, but…the thing is, I'd like to switch genres, and I'd like to do something else, because it's such an intense journey. Doing a Bond film, the expectations are so huge. Casino Royale was the most successful Bond film ever and I carry all that pressure. And the world media is looking at you with a microscope: What is he going to do? Who is he going to cast? Who are the Bond girls? I liked being a little bit under the radar. To live a year, a year and a half with that kind of pressure is not necessarily joyful. It's fun and I enjoyed doing it, but the pressure's enormous because if the movie doesn't work commercially, it really affects my career with the smaller movies. And if it does work commercially, yes, the upside is that I can make other big Hollywood blockbusters. But is that something I want?

It's been reported that Aston Martin has given Daniel Craig a lifetime pass to come by anytime for a test drive. Did you get any perks from Aston Martin?
I didn't get a lifetime pass! That's interesting. I'll have to check into that. [laughs] But I went to the Aston Martin factory to choose the car and the color and everything, and the chairmen of the company said to me, "Oh, you want to go for a ride?" I said, "Sure." So we get into one of the DBS's and we're driving down these tiny English country roads at really high speed and the windows are closed, and it's a test car so there's no air conditioner. It's getting hot. I'm drenching with sweat. He's driving and he's saying, "Oh, there's something wrong here. They have to work on that," and he says, "You can really test these cars on these roads because if they work on these roads, they work on any roads." After the drive I stepped out and I said, "OK…Thank you." It was intense.

Was there anything that you had to leave out of this film? Was there a sequence or element or something that just didn't make it for some reason?
No, there's one sequence, just one scene that I cut and that will probably be in the DVD. It had to do with the famous line…the "Bond, James Bond" line is in that scene.

So you decided to take that out?
Not because of the line, no. I mean, the line didn't totally work, but it was because of the scene and the line was in it as well.

Because it seemed like maybe there was an effort made to get away from some of the clichés of the old Bond.
Yeah, I sort of wanted to create my own. I've always wanted to create a Bond I wanted to go see. So I took all of the Bond references I love and left all of the ones out I couldn't relate to. And I felt like the reality Bond is better right now than the sort of superhero gadgety Bond.