For starters, in Ian Fleming’s version of events, Le Chiffre wielded a “cane carpet beater” that he lightly flicked underneath Bond’s chair. While the finished scene in Casino Royale apparently was toned down from the extreme energy that Daniel Craig and his iconic co-star were working with, it was still a bit harsher than what the 1953 book intended. We were never sure if it was going to be in there or not, because it was on the edge for a Bond film. … It was always a scene that was on the edge. I do remember we had an extensive conversation with Martin Campbell, and we were like, because we came from rock and roll films, we were just diving into that scene and we came up with so many cool ideas, and Martin was listening and listening, and at a certain point he said, ‘Guys, guys, come back, come back, it’s a Bond film.’ We just left that.
Both were discussed, with Mads Mikkelsen revealing the process that reined in the madness on the latter: But if you’re going to get James Bond and Le Chiffre in the same room, one of two things has to come up: their supposedly laughable poker battle or the ball whipping incident. Reunited by Variety for a very informative video chat, the Casino Royale co-stars spilled a lot of fun stories from the beginning of Daniel Craig’s reboot arc.
