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‘007’ Casting Director Recalls ‘Awful’ Backlash After Hiring Daniel Craig: ‘I Felt So Sorry For Him’ Aynslee Darmon 10 hrs ago Trudeau pitches Liberals' climate change plan to voters in British Columbia Gavin Newsom holds on to his job as California's governor, CNN projects While fans of the James Bond franchise will be sad to see Daniel Craig depart the series after this year's "No Time To Die", his casting news was actually met with a lot of backlash. Daniel Craig looking at the camera: Daniel Craig as James Bond© Photo: Shutterstock Daniel Craig as James Bond Casting director Debbie McWilliams chatted with Entertainment Weekly about the casting the past three James Bonds and recalled the "awful" comments about Craig joining the franchise. McWilliams is responsible for hiring Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Craig. RELATED: The Time Has Come For Daniel Craig’s James Bond In New ‘No Time To Die’ Trailer Video: Everything You Need To Know About 'Night Raiders' (ET Canada) Pause Ad 00:15 - up next "Everything You Need To Know About 'Night Raiders'" Unmute 0 Everything You Need To Know About 'Night Raiders' “It was unbelievably negative, I have to say,” McWilliams said about the reaction to Craig as 007. “The press response was awful and I felt so sorry for him, but in a funny kind of a way I think it almost spurred him on to do his damndest to prove everybody wrong. The whole way through the film, stuff would come out about [how] he couldn’t walk and talk, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t drive a car properly, so much stuff which was completely and utterly untrue. And he just kept his head down, got on with the job and then the film came out and everybody went, ‘Oh wow, I think we quite like him after all.'” New Lung Cleaning Device Is Going Viral SEE MORE Sponsored by SMART LIFESTYLE TRENDS She continued, “There was a massive search before he was cast and it had started out as a slightly different slant on things. Originally the story of ‘Casino Royale’ was meant to be a sort of new, young tryout growing into James Bond rather than the fully formed character, but we struggled to find anybody who could fill those shoes… then as time went by they decided, let’s just stick with the old formula and let’s look at it again. And that was after a long, long search and Daniel became the obvious choice to me in the end.” RELATED: Daniel Craig Reflects On 15 Years As Agent 007 In ‘Being James Bond’ Trailer On bringing someone new to the movies, McWilliams said, “Craig’s going to be a tough act to follow.” After multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Craig's last Bond film, "No Time To Die", will hit big screens Oct. 8.