Daniel Craig says he forgot how to speak like his 'Knives Out' character and spent 4 months with an accent coach before filming the sequel
- Daniel Craig said in an interview with Empire that he spent four months with an accent coach.
- "I'd forgotten the accent," Craig said of his "Knives Out" Benoit Blanc character.
Daniel Craig needed a vocal jumpstart to reprise his "Knives Out" character Benoit Blanc for the sequel.
The former James Bond star revealed recently to Empire writer Ben Travis that he had lost the ability to speak in Blanc's unique Southern accent before filming started on "Glass Onion: A 'Knives Out' Mystery."
"I went away to work with an accent coach for three or four months before we started shooting ['Glass Onion']," Craig said. "I'd forgotten the accent and I didn't want to do a pastiche. I wanted to make it as grounded and as anchored in reality as possible."
Craig received rave reviews for his performance as the suave detective when Rian Johnson's 2019 whodunit "Knives Out" came out in theaters. It also led to Johnson scoring a best original screenplay Oscar nomination.
Since then Netflix bought the rights to the franchise from Lionsgate and now Craig is returning as Blanc for another murder mystery with a new all-star cast that includes Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.
But this is not the first time Craig has put in extra work to keep an accent.
For the 2017 heist movie "Logan Lucky," Craig played a bank robber who spoke in a high-pitched southern twang. Costar Riley Keough told Insider at the time of the movie's release the lengths Craig went to speak in the accent.
"He was doing the voice the whole time," Keough said. "If I saw him at the hotel after shooting he would be doing the voice. It was really funny."
Why did she think he went to those lengths?
"I think the thing is because he's English he wanted to not lose the voice," Keough said at the time.
"Glass Onion" will be released in theaters and on Netflix later this year.