I saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo over the holidays (review here), and I walked away liking Daniel Craig even more. For all of the talk about the character of Lisbeth Salander and the wildly different portraits given by Rooney Mara and Noomi Rapace, I was impressed with how Daniel gave life to Mikael Blomkvist. True, he wasn’t really my idea of Blomkvist (too capable, too James Bond, not “average” enough), but he brought a depth and seriousness to the role, and I enjoyed seeing Daniel own the part. Daniel is still promoting the hell out of this, his final bid of the year to have a major hit film. The problem with Daniel’s promotional tour is that… well, he’s a surly curmudgeon. He’s a fickle, misanthropic bitch. (We are kindred spirits, I feel.) Previously, Daniel covered GQ UK and his criticism of the Kardashians (“f-cking idiots”) got a lot of play. Now, in a new interview, Daniel is taking on politics in general, and specifically British politics, New Labor and Tony Blair. Oh, and he talks smack about Rotten Tomatoes too. WTF? He’s getting into Megan Fox territory.

Daniel on politicians cozying up to artists: “Tony Blair started it much more than anybody’s ever done.” Referring to a 1936 German novel about an actor who curries favour with the Nazis to promote his career, and the 1981 movie based on it, he said: “It becomes Mephisto. You immediately are aligning yourself with a political party. Politicians are sh*theads, That’s how they become politicians, even the good ones. We’re actors, we’re artists, we’re very nice to each other. They’ll turn around and stab you in the f*cking back.”

On Cool Brittannia: Talking about Blair’s 1997 ‘Cool Brittannia’ movement that saw artists like Oasis singer Noel Gallagher have tea at Downing Street, he said, “The fact that a guy who’d been in a band, owned an electric guitar and has probably had a spliff was Prime Minister really meant something, after years of John Major and Margaret Thatcher. He just might be one of us. In hindsight, it turned out he was just a politician like all the rest.”

Daniel on George Clooney: “George has his finger on the political pulse, and he’s one of those guys who can get up and talk, and I don’t have that. If someone shoves a microphone in your face and says, ‘Explain yourself,’ you have to have a 100 percent understanding of why you’re doing it, and unless you’re 100 percent, don’t f*cking do it, leave it alone, let your work speak for itself.”

On his movie “Dream House”: “The movie didn’t turn out great. But I met my wife [co-star Rachel Weisz[. Fair trade, don’t you think?”

On the technological advancements of the Internet: “Something like Blade Runner, nobody knew what the f**k that was. There was no fanfare behind it… nothing. You went in to see it and were like, ‘What the f**k is this about?’ It was great. You can’t do that now. I mourn it, I really do. Now, everything is explained. Now there’s Rotten Tomatoes, with 120 reviews and your Tomatometer. Just aesthetically, I have a flicking problem with Rotten Tomatoes’ graphics. I mean, what the f**k? I really hate the expert opinion. If you were a f**king expert, you’d be doing it.’”

On the upcoming James Bond picture: “The script is better than Casino Royale.”

On getting in shape to shoot his Bond role: “I’m a bit of a gym bunny. But the truth is it’s f**king boring. I do light weights and lots of reps… There was a class I heard someone talk about — spinning yoga — which is an hour and a half of spinning, then an hour and a half of yoga, hot f**king yoga. What are you doing with your life where you can spend three hours on that?”

[From The Mail & Celebrity Gossip]

Is it wrong that I see his point (sort of) on the political comments? I think he’s saying that celebrities shouldn’t agree to do this photo ops with politicians, they shouldn’t align themselves with politicians or parties, because they’ll end up screwed over and disillusioned. There’s something to that. But to then turn around and compliment the King of Washington Ass-Kissing, George Clooney? Meh.

But mostly, the thing that irritates me the most is his tirade about Rotten Tomatoes. Seriously, he has a beef with a site that simply accumulates critical data and lays it out graphically? It’s a reference site, and people use it so that they won’t waste money seeing one of Daniel’s crappier films. Like, The Invasion. Or Dream House. Why can’t Daniel just take “the expert opinion” (critical opinion) as part of his job, one of the many reasons why he’s paid millions of dollars to wear nice clothes and pretend? I swear, Daniel might be too much of a curmudgeon even for me, and I usually love a surly bastard.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Men’s Fitness.