Daniel Craig has said he thought the makers of James Bond had “got the wrong guy” when he was offered the part.
The actor made the comment at a Bafta event in London which looked back on his career ahead of the release of the new film in the franchise.
Craig, 53, first played 007 in 2006’s Casino Royale and is preparing for the release of his fifth and final James Bond film, No Time To Die.
During the event on Friday, Craig said he initially expressed doubt about being cast in the role during a conversation with producer Barbara Broccoli.
He said he told Broccoli: “Thank you, flattering, but I think you’ve got the wrong guy.
“Maybe you’re auditioning lots of people and you’re sort of trying to get a picture of it.”
Speaking at the event, Craig added: “Barbara had already made up her mind.
“You know, if you know Barbara, that means she’s made up her mind.
“It was just odd.”
He added: “You know, people used to say, ‘Oh you must have always wanted to be James Bond’.
“I went, ‘Well, yeah, kind of as a kid I kind of thought about it. I want to be Spiderman as well, but I just thought it was never going to happen’.
“I never thought it would come on my radar.
“I just was like, ‘I don’t know, that’s such an awful lot of pressure and God almighty, that’s just going to be such a kind of like a momentous thing’.”
Craig said he was given the opportunity to “come in and just try and reinvent it a bit, and try and sort of make it fresh again, and that’s what we’ve always tried to achieve with it”.
No Time To Die will be released in the UK on September 30.