>> rose: welcome to the program. tonight, james bond and the new james bond film "spectre." we talk to daniel craig and sam mendes. >> i think that from the very beginning my only intention was just to sort of -- you know, the center of a big movie, it doesn't matter how outrageous it is, if you believe in the central characters, if you're emotionally involved with them, i think you're just going to have a better time. i think he's flawed. he kills people for a living. he lives alone. he sleeps with lots of women. i find all those incredibly fascinating. that's what appeals to me. >> there is a kind of fearlessness about television now and it's amazing and the

audience is embracing it. but that's not hollywood backing off serious movies, it's audiences not going to serious movies. they fill a demand, and if it's not there, they go to television and that's what they'll make. >> rose: daniel craig and sam mendes for the hour next. >> rose: additional funding provided by: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: "spectre," the 24th film in the james bond series. daniel craig returns for his

fourth term as 007. roger moore calls him the best bond of all time. sam mendes returns from the success of 2012 "sky fall." that film grossed more than $1 billion worldwide. in the new film, bond faces off a global criminal organization "spectre" and here is the trailer for the film. >> you have no authority, none. mexico city. what were you doing there? >> i was taking some overdue holiday. >> so what's going on, james? they say you're finished. >> what do you think? i think you're just getting started. >> magnificent. 3.2 seconds. little tricks up our sleeves. >> do one more thing for me.

what do you have in mind? make me disappear. tell me where he is. he's everywhere! you should go there. you're crossing over to a place where there's no mercy. >> you're protecting someone. get away from me! why should i talk to you? i'm your best chance of staying alive. >> the organization, do you know what it's called? >> it's name is "spectre." do you know who links them all? >> me. welcome, james. you came across me so many times, yet you never saw me.

>> what took you so long? is this really what you want? living in the shadow? hunting? always alone? >> i have to stop to think about it. >> it's me, james. the author of all your pain. >> rose: i am pleased to have daniel craig and sam mendes back at this table. welcome. >> pleasure. >> rose: so how hard was it to stop "sky fall"? >> well, i don't think you should even think about it. topping it is kind of -- you

know, but i think we were both determined to make a completely different movie. it's dangerous when you've had a success to try to repeat the same formula. almost everything about the movie is different. we shot this film. >> rose: why did you do that other than the fact a lot of great filmmakers use film? >> for me there was a sort of romance about this movie that i wanted to try and achieve. it's a love story for a start. but there is a kind of nostalgia to the film as well. there's a softness. a grander flamboyance to their locations. i found digital on "sky fall" in daylight scenes to be quite harsh. so i decided -- and also there is a routine, isn't there? >> i'm getting older. it's in my contract. (laughter) >> he basically bribed them. i give him a few extra pages.

>> i know this is the argument and it's old hat to say, but you spend all the time trying to make digital look like film. >> rose: so did you want him to do this? i mean, did you beg him? did you get on your knees? did you -- >> of course. i was desperate. >> rose: desperate. desperate because i felt that we had started something with "sky fall." i had the great pleasure of working with sam on road to perdition. it was a big movie and i had a lot of fun doing it, but i felt like we were just starting to kind of learn something about each other but also learning about working together that was so satisfying and had, you know, it felt so creative. sam was very, very kind to allow me to have an opinion.

>> rose: here's what really interests me. you really want to make this. you're into it. you know it's going to be gangbusters around the world. is part of what you're going to do, how can i do this different, better, stretch the boundaries of bond? we saw in "sky fall" we went deep into childhood. >> i think both of us would kind of agree. we wouldn't want to do any of this unless you were doing all of those things. you know, you got to push it in some way and there is no source material. we have to invent it from scratch. a huge amount of work goes on with trying to bring a story together. the writers were putting together and we were signature down together. something started to snowball.

the creativity started coming in the room because of everyone's enthusiasm and because to have the success of "skyfall" and because of a lot of good l. people came in and we were firing on all cylinders. >> rose: who's in the room? we talk about "skyfall" and working together on that, but the truth is it was very odd for me because as a director you're used to being in control, ultimately, and to come on to a franchise where you have someone you know and admire as your friend, but who fundamentally knows more about it as you do on some level, who has played the part before. so in "skyfall" there was a kind of -- it was -- and also i was asking daniel to play the role playing catch-up the whole time. in "skyfall," he's nearly dead, a beat behind everybody, and you can argue at the end of "skyfall" he fails and dies in his arms. so it's a standoff between us.

i loved working with but he wasn't released into the role because it was like putting him into a straitjacket. on top of that, he had more experience than me. i know him very well. there's a slight suspension. we wanted to let each other rip in a way. in this i said it's a totally different film. nobody knows what you're up to. that allows us much more freedom. >> rose: talking "spectre." "spectre." this allows much more freedom as an actor. anytime you have an idea, do it. don't have to ask me about it. if a line comes to you in the moment, just do it. that kind of freedom, i was very struck something speilberg said about indiana jones which is the second and third time he did the role which is they stuck less and less to the script because you get a kind of rhythm going and you just know that you know the world properly. there is no standoff anymore.

you're fully invested. the same went for almost everyone tells. pretty much everyone returned. not only actors, naomie harris, but crew members, heads of d. and where there was little sense of "skyfall," maybe it's my paranoia, can this guy do an action movie? what's going on? here they're p what can we do for you? we want to do the best we can. they were wearing "skyfall" jackets and t-shirts and we felt they would have gone anywhere with this. that was the situation. >> rose: give me an example where you took it off script and wanted to do something at the came to you. does anything come to you now? >> obviously in interview situations, very little. >> i could still that one of my favorite sections of the movie

for me, the most difficult thing in the movie is to try and combine in the middle of a big bruising action movie a love story, and one of the things i was most concerned and worried about to to begin with was having something delicate and intimate in the middle of it all. we're very lucky because lea seydoux is an incredible actress and gives a stunning performance. a lot of things daniel said, he invented it. there are lines throughout the scene, just speaking as he's saying. but there are funny lines, too. a good example is he sees a rolls royce coming out of a desert right in the middle of the movie, and it's a completely surreal scene and she says, what's that? and the line in the script is, it looks like our ride or something like that. and daniel just said, that's a 1948 rolls royce silver race. that's the only thing you can

get away with in a bond movie when you're played bond a couple of times. it's so bond on so many levels. he said, am i okay to say that? i said just say it louder. that's a good example. a good example of how you can shift home not away from dialogue but being in the mexico city at the beginning, he collapses and falls through a collapsing building from story to story to story and in the script he lands on his feet right and i said about ten minutes before we did it, why don't you just land on the so fa and daniel went, great, where's the so fa? that is the first time. >> it also allows the audience to laugh even though it's serious. the last movie had a toughness to it, a slight grimness to it and wasn't always certain we

were allowed to. i wanted to be clear from the beginning we wanted to loosen up and have more mischief. >> rose: was vulnerability one of the qualities that you wanted to add? how would you characterize it? >> i think that from the very beginning my only intention was ever to -- was just to sort of -- you know, the center of the big movie, it doesn't matter how outrageous it is. if you believe in the central characters, if you're emotionally involved with them, i think you're just going to have a better time. i think he's flawed. i get a little stick for giving him stick. but he's flawed for a living. he lives alone. he sleeps with a lot of women. i that you understoo find all ty fascinating, it appeals to me. >> rose: why is he like that. why is he like that. i'm almost nearly 100% sure you have to see someone who has weaknesses on screen, otherwise,

they're two dimensional. >> rose: and you want him to be three, at least? >> at least, three. i'm looking for four, mostly. whatever that is. >> rose: people also notice there is a serialization, whatever that means -- >> with the full movie. >> rose: yeah. happy accident, in a way, but by the time sam in "skyfall," it seemed to make sense. we joined a few things and came to do this movie. we wanted to tie up loose ends and they fitted well. >> i think even daniel was uncertainty about the freudian touches of the last movie, seeing the reason for bond becoming bond as a child. he was, like, really? are we going to get away with it? i wasn't sure we were. now it looks like it was a given that it was going to do well. actually, we were showing a character that is ageless and everyone around him is saying, you're getting too old, which

daniel -- and on top of that we had a character dying and i thought we might get hit with the -- look, we want escapism. we don't want to be told people are aging. we're coming to the movies to be told we don't have to worry. so actually the fact that people embrace allowed us to do a little further in the movie and tell the second story of his childhood, kind of obliquely. >> rose: there are certain things that seem to be needed. one, the chase scene at the beginning. i mean, you have to do something dramatic in the first three or four minutes, correct? or not? >> no, i think you're short changing people if you don't do it. >> rose: that's interesting. you're short changing them because they expect it like that? >> because it sets the tone and i think that when i look back to the movies, watching them as a

kid in the cinema, those first five minutes or whatever it is -- >> rose: before he's doing something. >> before the credits. daniel seems to have been around -- but for me the first bond november where was north by northwest, and hitchcock has one about casting stars. they said why do you always cast movie stars like that? the audience already has a relationship with them. that's true with db. they not only know daniel but bond, too. that gives you the freedom for the first ten minutes that you don't have to tell them what's going on. you can drop them into the middle of somewhere with no

explanation and expect them to shadow the central character. so i felt the freedom of that. it wasn't a burden for me. >> rose: the other thing you've got to have is a fascinating villain. you have to have somebody that's really beyond. yes? >> yes. >> rose: he can't be an ordinary villain. >> no. >> rose: smarter, meaner, tougher than -- >> yeah, i mean, i think it's an interesting thing. this time, we wanted to go to the top. we wanted there to be nobody above this person. >> rose: the head of "spectre." the head of "spectre," obviously. again we're raising the stakes. as we said, we wanted to raise the stakes -- >> rose: do you two share that, raise the stakes, take the risks? >> i remember hearing -- and i don't know, i heard something

about sam directing movies, it was something we started doing on "skyfall" which we would look at each other and go, is this good enough, what we've just done? and we did it a number of times on this movie. we would shoot the scene and -- >> rose: on "skyfall." less so but more so in this movie. we would look at each other and go, mmm... we're not happy. >> rose: you see it in his eyes? >> it's after an event. you have to let it sit a bit and sometimes things will actually turn out find and you need to get shape and a little distance. but there was a scene on "skyfall" which is kind of the pivotal scene between bond and ann when judi dench is playing ann is the same scene between bond and moneypenny when we shot because it was a spring board on so many levels. both times we shot them early and watched the movie develop a bit and a couple of months

earlier, i didn't even get to the end of the sentence, and he says, yep, that's fine. >> i didn't want to go back and we are shoot it. >> rose: how often do you want to do that? >> less than you think. there is a relief sometimes when you've done stuff and it's something you're very nervous about. but when it's clear and it's the time, you know, it's a real luxury. we did it. >> rose: so how do you know when you've done enough bond? >> i don't know. i don't know. >> rose: you will know when you know? >> i think i'll know when i know. you know, i can honestly say i've enjoyed making this movie more than the others put together. >> rose: all the other movies? all the other bond movies put together. >> rose: enjoyed making "spectre" more than the other ones? >> yes but also i think probably because of him, because of the

relationship that we sort of -- sam had my back. i felt sort of relaxed. i could sort of zone out. my tendency in some of the past movies is i felt like i had to control everything because of theater, probably, thinking, you know, i'm the guy in front, i'm the guy at the head of the party who has to be in charge and sam took that away from me and allowed me just to be an actor which i haven't done for a long time. dplmpletit was a hard one. it was a tough shoot because it was very, very long, lots of different countries, grueling and physically -- you know, people were injured and all that sort of stuff, but it was more fun. in. fun. it was more exciting. the thing about doing another one, i always feel for daniel, because you're running a marathon 100 yards from the finish line and somebody shouts

out, you want to run another marathon? you're going to give them a two-word answer, you know what i mean? >> rose: yeah. just one of those, put a tinfoil plate on and sit down and think about it, what i want to do in the future. but it's a marathon for h him. >> rose: why does bond have the hold that it does on film audiences? what is it that makes it? is it simply the character that he created so many years ago or is it somehow -- you know -- >> well, i feel like i've grown to know what it is, but, you know, i was a rabbit in head lights when i hit casino royal. but here's what i did. barbara brook and michael were th producers. i said, i have no idea how to do

this. this is a tall order. i don't know even know why you're casting me. it's the last thing i ever expected. but if you allow me to get involved, if you allow me to be part of the process, then i can do it because i can feel like -- i want to be a filmmaker here. i don't want to just be the gun for hire who comes and plays bond and leaves and everybody goes home. i want to feel like i'm part of the process. i have to invest everything i have in this because probably this is a once in a lifetime chance. these things don't come around very often. they did. they let me have it. they let me be part of it. i think that has been a huge learning curve for me. i've developed more as a filmmaker as someone who says i want to make movies, i want to find material, i want to -- you know -- >> rose: but you have a lot of roles you still want to play.

>> the inspector remind med of how much i enjoyed doing this. i mean, i've been doing this for over 30 years, and, you know, i love acting. >> rose: what is it you love about it? >> showing off, dressing up. (laughter) >> rose: is it inhabiting another character? >> the creative process. simple as that. i get the chance, in this movie i can give you sort of my -- the shpeel about how fantastic, but it generally is a beautiful, wonderful cast, and i'm having fun acting with people and having fun creatively doing whatever we do together on set. sort of, like i said, what can we do better. >> rose: everybody might think that this thing is such a successful formula. you're a good direct, got a formula, got an actor that knows his stuff and you've got a

money-making film, for all those reasons, but i hear you saying something else. >> i wouldn't do it. >> rose: i know. i hear you saying you have found a way in bond and independents a huge opportunity for what it means for you in terms of all the other things that matter, in terms of leverage and that kind of stuff, i hear you saying you found a way to make this a really creative experience for you. >> you know, i had -- >> rose: and, so, therefore, don't go thinking this is automatic pilot for me because it ain't. >> i don't care what they think, frankly. if i thought for one second it was in an it ain't broke don't fix it mode, i wouldn't want to do it. if you asked me ten years ago where i wanted bond to be now, i would have said this is it, because we have money to make these movies, it's a huge

privilege and as far as i'm concerned, you hire the best you can and get them to be their best. it's huge undertaking. he has a massive thing to do just corralling people. but then we've got a great producer and we've got a lot of good will. but you have to keep that. people can geted off on a movie set very quickly. but generally i think it trickles down from the top. you can see we're committed, everybody wants to do the best thing. you know, i'm incredibly proud of this movie for that reason alone. i mean, you know -- >> rose: would you have done this? would you have been willing to direct the bond if it was not daniel craig? >> well, i mean, they asked me did i think daniel craig would make a good bond and i said, no, i didn't. to be honest with you, at that

point, i couldn't equate with what bond had become, an urban, eyebrow-raising, suave, with this anarchist. i worked with him in chicago. (laughter) but it was really exciting. it's like the return of something. it was not an accident. it was a great story that barbara and michael had the courage to remove camp and other surprising characters. >> not that i'm very off camera. >> rose: he's seen you selling. (laughter) all right, take a look at the clips. roll tape. take a look that.

(laughter) >> rose: physical, too, by the way. >> i mean, that's just the way it started i actually find it a huge amount of fun. that sequence itself, we had six weeks of rehearsal? >> rose: six weeks? off and on. during other parts of rehearsal and preparing for

the film. it ends up being a dancing scene. i'm no fred astaire but it's choreography and it's a lot of fun. dave is a supreme athlete and a joy to work with. he didn't break into a sweat. i'm literally -- (gasps) >> -- sitting back, breathing hard. i'm just trying to get out of the way. >> rose: what was the talent of shooting that thing? >> i'm very old fashioned with action. i'm a believer in continuity, not crossing the line, screen direction remaining the same so you can follow every punch. i'm not a fan of throw seven cameras up and cut in so you will slightly confused and smoke

and mirrors. there is smoke and mirrors in any movie, but -- it makes it very pedestrian to shoot and very satisfying to watch but it's much slower. he did everything for real, and it felt exciting because you really believed he was violent and capable of killing someone or beating them to a pulp, so he's had to continue that in the other movies, and he did that here. but, you know, that moves through four carriages and it really is a significant set piece, and it was really satisfying when you put it together. but the shoot is very pains taking. >> rose: in "skyfall," was it hard to kill off judy dench? >> it was very difficult, actually, because there was something about her spirit. i don't know about daniel but i love rafe, and i think even rafe missed her in this movie. they were so good together.

she's an extraordinary person. she's like a good luck charm. she makes everyone better. she's one of those actors who's incapable of ever doing a bad take. everyone is good and everyone is different. she just has an amazing effect on everyone around her. >> rose: you have to approach that very carefully. >> yes, we had to take her to lunch and barbara said we have to tell her agent first so she can break the news rather than break it to her over lunch. she arrived and looked at me saying, here i am, tear-stained and livvid! but she took it well. she's been part of the family 20 years, and it is an extended family, and it is very difficult for someone like that to not feel a part of it anymore.

>> rose: and balance. what's your combass for finding time to do it. >> well, i damaged my knee badly which allows me to have to take time off. >> rose: what did you do to your knee? >> i lost my acl. >> rose: in this scene? that clip? >> that clip. it was that take. he's incredibly tough. (laughter) >> they gave me some time off and that, simply put, is the way i'll deal with the next six months. >> rose: when do you start rehearsing.

>> fall of next year. >> rose: where are you doing it? >> the manhattan theater workshop. >> rose: here. that's right. >> rose: take a look at. this this is number three. let's see the two of them together. >> information is all. is it not? for example, you must know by now that the 00 program is officially dead, we leads me to speculate about exactly why you came. >> so, james, why did you come? i came here to kill you. and i thought you came here to die. >> well, it's all a matter of perspective. >> rose: >> rose: wow! fun, isn't it? >> rose: it is fun! what else is next for you? >> fixing my knee, getting time

off, not thinking about james bond. i think we're both in that boat. >> rose: how long does it take you to do this? >> two and a half years. >> rose: total, two and a half devotion. >> six months is working on the script while doing other things and then complete for two years, basically. you know, with the pressure on big movies to deliver, you know, i think movies take longer to make these days. and if you're doing something for real, you know, it involves traveling the world, which we did. >> rose: there is no a smart way to ask it. i'm trying to ask it without asking it. are you already thinking about doing it again? or you'll defer that decision? >> i mean, it literally is one of those -- i know all these things have been said and i've said stuff in the press and as i explained it, it was two days after i finished filming it and

i said, no, of course not. >> rose: i'm never doing it again. (laughter) >> i would work with him again tomorrow. i love the family that i work with on. this i've had an amazing time doing this one, but i need six months to literally think about something else, just clear my mind. and i kind of don't want to sort of begin a debate because it becomes about something else. we spent two years of our lives producing this movie. like i said, we are very proud of it, we want many people to see it. if all people are talking about, it's going to be the next james bond, i'm going to keep my council. >> one's life is not a democracy but a dictatorship. however much they may try and persuade you ultimately, it comes down to what daniel says. >> rose: i understand. you're doing a bunch of stuff. >> no. we're unemployed. >> rose: you looking for a

job? >> i'm unemployed. >> rose: i thank you for coming. great to see you. >> pleasure. >> rose: we continue with sam mendes, an academy award winning director. he directed the latest installation of the james bond series, "spectre." his previous film "skyfall" became the most sixful bond movie and is directing a cabaret going on tour in january 2016. i'm pleased he continued with us. talk about cabaret for a second. did this interest you not only as a producer but also as an a entrepreneurial activity? >> really, it's not me producing it. it's theater i love deernld gave me the chance to make the show

in the first place. when i came over to new york with no record in this town, todd ames said we want to make this show and i said i'll only do it if we can find a theater to turn into a nightclub. it took is three years. we found what was then the henry miller. the crane fell on that theater, the roof fell in and we moved it to what is now studio 54. it's that kind of dogged belief in the show is what made it live. for me i came back to do it on broadway in part again and played emcee throughout in part because of loyalty toward the show in the first place and his desire to see it again back in '54. so this is an extension of that really. it's a show and a piece i love. i'm proud of the production, but i think it's a great piece of music theater, it's one of the

great pieces of music theater ever written and, you know -- >> rose: what makes it that? oh, it's a combination of -- it's the way music is used throughout, i think. it has politics. it's about, you know, i remember when the world changed, and it does it in a kind of incredibly condensed way, but it also -- look, on a very base level, it has unbelievable characters. it has a pedigree because it has all the stories that feed the myth of anna berlin, but on the other hand it has another foot in the '60s and '70s in the great area of fozzie and al prince and the '70s. it has all of those things in the melting pot and it's the best of all of them. >> rose: when you think of yourself as a director you think of yourself as a theater director? >> not any more, actually. i think i did for a while when i

was making films, but i think doing the bond movies and working on that kind of scale put pay to that. i feel comfortable on the movie set and i think i know what i'm doing. >> rose: is it as satisfying for you? >> yes. but different part of the process. for me, rehearsals are everything. in the theater, that's where the real creation stakes place and that's the most exciting time. film, it's the other end of the process. it's in the editing room and you feel much more in control. >> rose: when you're in the editing room, do you find yourself saying we did not get what i needed? >> all the time. you're constantly dancing around what you missed. hopefully you got enough that you actually did get it. i don't think many directors ca3 bear to watch their own movies shortly after they finished them because all you see the flaws and narrative holes.

>> rose: do you watch once or twice? >> when it's finished? >> rose: yes. some movies from the day i finished them i've never seen them again. i might have bumped into them on cable for ten minutes. but then there are some you go banned back and revisit because you're interested. >> rose: is it primarily because you see things you wish you had done or simply that you have done it? >> it's difficult to explain. you feel kind of almost resentful of them in a way. they dominate your life for so long and you're so much a part of them and you have to leave them behind, but you can't see them with any clarity for a couple of years. sometimes you have a nice experience when you watch movies and you think that's better than i remember it, i'm actually proud of the film, and at the time i was confused and conflicted about it and remember it badly. other things are the other way around. you can't wait to see it and then are really disappointed. >> rose: you listed ten pieces

of advice for aspiring directors. >> young directors thinking of directing a big action movie. it was tongue-in-cheek. >> rose: okay. get in touch with your inner 12-year-old. he or she was such an interesting kid. that's tongue-in-cheek but there is something to that? >> yes. for me doing bond was in part going back to myself as you have to find the kid that was taken by that world, that sort of, you know, forbidden world of adults and danger and sexuality and weirdness. it was a thrilling moment. i remember it vividly. to try and take away your ingrained snobbery. >> rose: yeah. i think it's that to some degree and has been that with

bond over the years because it's considered a big movie or a pot boiler or whatever in circles. so there is all that and trying to find a way to view it with innocence. >> rose: you said you can only ever point the camera at one thing at a time. >> yeah, i think there is a tendency. >> rose: tendency to try to do too much? >> yeah, exactly, to do too much at the same time. this is a personal thing. i know there are great filmmakers. paul creates a whirlwind of energy which is to do with having multiple cameras, but i can only concentrate or one thing at a time is really what i'm saying. if you do 17 takes, you're not sure what you're looking at. >> rose: you say you're playing roulette with somebody else's money. if you're going to bet it on

black you need to be able to explain why. >> the important thing is you need to be able to explain, not that you need to explain. but you have to have the articulacy to explain why it is what you're doing is important, how it fits into the story, how you need 8,000 costume extras in new york city and three helicopters and why 2,000 wouldn't be okay and two he helicopters. >> rose: if you don't know it well enough to explain it, then you don't know it well enough. whatever you want to do. i think that's true, in many walks. the other thing is that you have to -- >> rose: i realize some things are not explainable. >> but it's a total privilege to make a film. you're using ultimately someone else's money. you want a novel you just sit down and talk about it. you're not costing anything anymore. basically, you near isolation and you have the freedom, but

you can't work as a director unless someone pays you an enormous amount of money the make the film you want the make and that is the part of the process. >> rose: making an action sequence is only interesting when you're in the cutting room. up till then, it is literally the most tedious thing you will ever do. did you mean that? >> yes. you have to be so meticulous. you have to be safe. it's very dangerous. it's for real in a bond movie. it's a tradition, in a way. but i don't think it's a crew said so much i feel like audiences are more engaged when they feel like it's really happening and there is a delicate balance you're trying to strike between c.g.i. and real special effects and it's really tricky in a bond world when it's half-in and half-out of fantasy. so it's very slow and you have to disconnect. i was very frustrating when i

started going "skyfall." i like to get it up on its feet and see it and then shape it but you can't do that with action. it's very, very slow. once you do it and you begin to realize how to put it together, of course you need a brilliant editor, it starts to become interesting. >> rose: on the day, be prepared, but also be prepared to make stuff up. >> that's what we're staying with daniel, really, is that you have to -- however much you plan and however vast the structure is that's supporting you and there are thousands of people, you have to remain free in front of the camera because it doesn't matter how much money you're spending, how much action there is, if what's happening in front of the camera is not interesting and not live, it's all meaningless. it's completely pointless. so you have to maintain an improvisationry element.

>> rose: do you find actors want to do it over and over? >> no. daniel is -- you know, bond is a very difficult part to play because, you know, one inch to the left and to the right emotionally. it's too real, too truthful, too emotional. the other is too casual, too suave, you know, you're always walking a knife edge. that suit he wears most of the time is a kind of straitjacket. you have to hold yourself as a baron, look good and cool. you're style. these are complicated things. then also to give an emotional reality to the character. you know, that's tricky. and everyone has an opinion. every single person. you know, bond needs to be this or that. bond should be this or that way. he was terrified when he did

casino royal at the time. i remember as a director, you have the same thing. i went to turkey on the last movie. someone said we're thrilled to have you in turkey. the bond movies are so much better now that they're not trying to be funny. i said, i agree, i like them more serious. i went in ten steps and the woman behind the camera said you're going to put jokes in this one. that's bond. >> rose: when you're choosing collaborators, do not listen to people who tell you, yes, but i've never done a big movie. if they're any good, they will learn like i did. >> it's more about the fact there is a definitely suspicion of encouraging people from television small, independent film into large-scale moviemaking, and i think that sometimes the studio, i'mpeople will say, yeah, but they've

never done a big movie. they've done a great score here or great bit of cinematography, and it seems crazy because they did "skyfall," and then they brought in deacon to shoot "skyfall." the same is thomas newman who did the score. and that's how it works sometimes is you get a very -- you get the feeling there are people who do big and people who do small, and i don't believe that at all. >> rose: you need to tune out the white noise. you cannot please everyone. >> that's what i was saying. there is a lot of white noise. you have to embrace the dialogue with the audience which is a little bit like listening to turning into the white noise because if you make a normal movie, you basically, you know, make the film, you finish it and make a trailer and then you release the trailer and it just

begins a little knowledge a little awareness of the film and then the movie comes out. bond, there's a press conference. they review the press conference. the choice of cast, the song, the singer, the second trailer, the teaser, the casting of bond is the choice of director, everything is a dialogue and you have to embrace that because that's part of the process, and that's the way i think the movie like "spectre" can compete with something magnificent that has a weekly dialogue with its audience. you have to let go of that and let it happen. at the same time, don't read the reviews. >> rose: would you be prepared to do something like emma. >> yes. >> rose: because you have air time and story. >> that's what we do. we tell stories. it's a 10 to 40-hour story. what could be better? i feet a kick out of story. yeah, of course, many of the best filmed art of the last 20

years has been -- i challenge anyone to find anything better than the wire or the sopranos on film. it's an unbelievable peace of work on any level. breaking bad. i mean, you know, this is not news to anyone me saying this, but it is to the detriment of movies to a degree because the middle ground of movies migrated on television. american beauty, other movies, i couldn't make any of them in the studio for the money i spent on them then because they're either small or big, nothing in the middle, and that that's because of television being strong. >> rose: television at home for things in the middle? >> well, for ambitious -- you know, there is a kind of fearlessness about television now which is amazing and audience is embracing it, but

that's not hollywood backing off serious movies, it's audiences not going to serious movies. they fulfill a demand. if the demand is not there and they go instead to television, that's what they're going to make is that tarantino, speilberg, scorsese, paul thomas anderson all still shoot on film. there is a reason. >> yeah. it's not about film is better or worse. i've shot movies on digital, i shot "skyfall" on digital. it's simply there should be a choice. the choice has to be preserved. i think almost the biggest loss has already happened which is the film projection is dead and it should be mourned,eth an end ofen era. but it's amazing to -- >> rose: prepare to surf the

big wave and prepare to be wiped out when you catch it, it feels like nothing else. >> yeah. >> rose: how many times have you caught it? >> half a dozen time in each movie where feel there is nothing better. we did a movie that starts with a four-minute shot. thousands of people, thousands of people have to be working together in absolutely unison and synchronicity all at the same time and, when it's done, the cheer that goes up, from people who have worked on crews for 40 years, i've never seen anything like this, that was an absolute thrill. i was aware when i was doing it i'll probably never do it again. and it is a very particular different emotional buzz you get from a two-handed scene that's been beautifully rendered by two great actors and the cameras capture the magic but it is

equally valid. >> rose: when you get excited don't be afraid to leap out of your chair and sing the bond theme. >> we've all done it. >> rose: yes. with respect to you, the same thing i talked to daniel about. you've enjoyed this experience. you've learned. >> mm-hmm. >> rose: do you learn anything that affects what you do on stage? >> not really. >> rose: it's a different animal? >> it's totally different. i did king lear just before we made this film and i can see it in all sorts of little areas, the obsession with eyes and blinding, i've just been doing the greatest blinding scene in the history of literature, so those things we feed in. but it does. always work the other way. i think what i love the theater for is the opposite of what i just described. you know, it's calm and privacy and focus and, you know, the purity of it, you know, the

story, the distance between the idea and the story is so short in a movie that's so long. >> rose: do you have any obsession, any dream, any sense that before i die, this i have to do? >> it's all sport related. >> rose: swim the english channel? >> no, i can't do sports. i'm talking about, you know, the things that fascinate me and still make me -- look, i love what i do, so i'm still excited about that. you know, i'm a fan. i'm a fan of great managers, i'm a fan of great players of great musicians and all of those things i feel like, you know, everything gets pushed away when you make these films there, your life stops, and i would love to have an opportunity to follow some of those people, to tell stories for real. i mean, i would like to make a couple of documentaries and to do things that are close to

reality. >> rose: do things about people who have achieved a certain level of greatness? >> yes, that i admire. >> rose: that you admire. does it capture what it is? to capture their being, to capture their process, to capture their mindset, to camture their preparation, t toture their -- all that. >> all that. it's interesting. it's what you do when you're trying to get to the center of somebody and work out what makes them tick and you have to choose carefully because -- and also to remind people that there is still wonder in the world. i know that sounds corny on some level, but we live with remarkable people and there are remarkable people out there, and i think that that's something that film can do very, very well. >> rose: somebody once said to me you know there are only two kinds of profiles, one is the

tragedy of it all or the wonder of it all. >> yeah. that's brilliant. >> rose: thank you. great to see you. >> great pleasure. >> rose: very, very. thank you. >> as always. >> rose: sam mendes, director of "spectre." thank you for joining us. see you next time. for more about this episode and earlier episodes, visi visit us online at pbs.org and charlierose.com. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

kacyra: it kind of was like the bang that set off the night. rogers: that is the funkiest restaurant. man: the honey on the prawns will make your insides smile. klugman: more tortillas, please. man: what is comfort food if it isn't gluten and grease? man: i love crème brûlée. woman: the octopus should've been, like, quadropus, because it was really small. sbrocco: and you know that when you split something, all the calories evaporate and then there's none. man: that's right, yeah.