美国国家公共电台 NPR Daniel Craig: 'Knives Out' Is One Of Those 'Grand Pieces Of Entertainment'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

"Knives Out" is a human jigsaw¹ puzzle of whodunit² - a rich novelist named Harlan Thrombey found dead in a divan³ upstairs, scheming, back-stabbing family members downstairs quarrelling over the spoils, an appealing family attendant and famously astute⁴ detective in the drawing room, armed only with his wits and, in this case, a slow Southern drawl.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNIVES OUT")

DANIEL CRAIG: (As Benoit Blanc) But let me assure you this, my presence will be ornamental⁵. You will find me a respectful, quiet, passive observer of the truth.

SIMON: Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Toni Collette, Don Johnson and Christopher Plummer are among the stars in Rian Johnson's salute⁶ to a whole genre⁷ of films drawn⁸ from or inspired by Agatha Christie. And as the master detective and gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc - Daniel Craig, who joins us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

CRAIG: It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

SIMON: And why the Southern drawl for Benoit Blanc?

CRAIG: Rian Johnson just wrote in the script. It says of the gentlest of Southern lilts. I may not have done that. But I went for it. And he wanted something that placed him - that separated him from the rest of the characters, kind maybe leaves him open for ridicule⁹ and does.

SIMON: Not to give away too much of the plot, but, in a way, your gentleman sleuth locks wits with the great mystery novelist, deceased for much of the film - played by Christopher Plummer - because he's tried to scatter¹⁰ clues about his own demise¹¹, hasn't he?

CRAIG: I suppose so. I mean, he's also done the opposite, I would say. He scattered¹² clues to put...

SIMON: Misdirection, yes.

CRAIG: ...Misdirection, I think, is what he's really after and for a very, very important reason. But the film is littered with stuff like this. I mean, there are many, many references. I mean, Rian's a fan of - as I am - of Agatha Christie and certainly of the sort of big movies that came out when I was a kid, like a "Murder On The Orient Express" with Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov in "Death On The Nile." They were event movies with lots of big stars in them that sort of - were just sort of grand pieces of entertainment. And that's what I think this movie sets out to be and succeeds in doing.

SIMON: Does Benoit have to possess a criminal mind to be an effective detective?

CRAIG: Oh, that's a question. I don't know. I don't know. He has an inquiring mind. And he sees in this young woman Marta, who was Thrombey's nurse, as somebody who's in deep trouble but is basically a very, very good person. And he thinks that she holds the key to the case. So he takes great interest in people. And I think that's where he finds out the sort of - the - you know, the crux¹³ of the case.

SIMON: The mystery writer, I believe - his advice to another character has rung in my mind during these these weeks of impeachment¹⁴ hearings and inquiries¹⁵. He says, don't lie. Tell fragments of the truth.

CRAIG: And what - are you suggesting that's been happening in the impeachment inquiries?

SIMON: I...

CRAIG: (Laughter).

SIMON: I just found the line more compelling because of...

CRAIG: (Laughter).

SIMON: ...What's going on. Well - but - and contemporary political arguments do make it into the film here, don't they?

CRAIG: They do. And I think, as Jamie Lee Curtis so eloquently¹⁶ put in a lot of interviews, there's a lot of red meat and blue meat being flung around here. So there's both sides of the argument. But there's a central story line to that. As I said, Ana de Armas is playing this character Marta, who is basically the heartbeat of the movie. And her predicament is very modern and up to date. It's very much today now - right now - amidst everything that is going on in this country.

SIMON: You are one of the best-known actors in the world. And I would ordinarily say you're the most famous show-business figure ever to come out of Liverpool.

CRAIG: I don't think that's true.

SIMON: (Laughter).

CRAIG: Thankfully, that's not true. And...

SIMON: There are four other people that are at least ahead of you.

CRAIG: There are four other - and a couple of other people you might add to that. But yeah. I'm very proudly from Liverpool. And I'm very proud to be from the same places as all four of them.

SIMON: I've read that you - when you were a young theater student and actor in London, you worked in restaurants, which is not surprising.

CRAIG: No. Of course, yes. I mean, I did from the age of 16.

SIMON: Yeah. So when you were working in restaurants, did that require any acting¹⁷?

CRAIG: I didn't know at first. But yes, it does. It takes - it - what it does is you need a persona, really. And you need a persona, I'm sure, as most waiters will tell you, just to sort of like - so you can ignore, you know, how rude people are a lot of the time. Yeah. I had a - I did - I was full-on silver service. I wore bow ties and had to do cocktails¹⁸ and do the whole thing. I did that for years and felt that - I mean...

SIMON: Well, I've got to ask, shaken or stirred?

CRAIG: Myself?

SIMON: (Laughter).

CRAIG: I mean...

SIMON: (Laughter) Yes.

CRAIG: ...Shaken, of course - cold as hell and very dry.

SIMON: (Laughter). So by the time you had to tie a bow tie for another certain character in the movies, you'd already done it, right?

CRAIG: It wasn't part of getting the job. But I could tie my own bow tie, yes.

SIMON: All right. I've avoided the obvious. But do people stop you on the street and go, da, da, da, da?

CRAIG: I do it to myself.

SIMON: (Laughter). Well, I would be - I guess I would be disappointed if you didn't do that.

CRAIG: My own soundtrack.

SIMON: Daniel Craig, the Southern gentleman detective in the whodunit "Knives Out," thank you so much for being with us.

CRAIG: Thank you for having me. Thank you very much.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。

2 whodunit   

n.侦探小说（或剧本、影片等）

参考例句：

• It is not the most promising script for a whodunit.这并不是最有市场前景的侦探小说剧本。
• I always like the series "Whodunit" by Wei Sili.我一直很喜欢卫斯理系列的推理小说。

3 divan   

n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集

参考例句：

• Lord Henry stretched himself out on the divan and laughed.亨利勋爵伸手摊脚地躺在沙发椅上，笑着。
• She noticed that Muffat was sitting resignedly on a narrow divan-bed.她看见莫法正垂头丧气地坐在一张不宽的坐床上。

4 astute   

adj.机敏的，精明的

参考例句：

• A good leader must be an astute judge of ability.一个优秀的领导人必须善于识别人的能力。
• The criminal was very astute and well matched the detective in intelligence.这个罪犯非常狡猾，足以对付侦探的机智。

5 ornamental   

adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物

参考例句：

• The stream was dammed up to form ornamental lakes.溪流用水坝拦挡起来,形成了装饰性的湖泊。
• The ornamental ironwork lends a touch of elegance to the house.铁艺饰件为房子略添雅致。

6 salute   

vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮

参考例句：

• Merchant ships salute each other by dipping the flag.商船互相点旗致敬。
• The Japanese women salute the people with formal bows in welcome.这些日本妇女以正式的鞠躬向人们施礼以示欢迎。

7 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

8 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

9 ridicule   

v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄

参考例句：

• You mustn't ridicule unfortunate people.你不该嘲笑不幸的人。
• Silly mistakes and queer clothes often arouse ridicule.荒谬的错误和古怪的服装常会引起人们的讪笑。

10 scatter   

vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散

参考例句：

• You pile everything up and scatter things around.你把东西乱堆乱放。
• Small villages scatter at the foot of the mountain.村庄零零落落地散布在山脚下。

11 demise   

n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让

参考例句：

• He praised the union's aims but predicted its early demise.他赞扬协会的目标，但预期这一协会很快会消亡。
• The war brought about the industry's sudden demise.战争道致这个行业就这么突然垮了。

12 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

13 crux   

adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点

参考例句：

• The crux of the matter is how to comprehensively treat this trend.问题的关键是如何全面地看待这种趋势。
• The crux of the matter is that attitudes have changed.问题的要害是人们的态度转变了。

14 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

15 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

16 eloquently   

adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地)

参考例句：

• I was toasted by him most eloquently at the dinner. 进餐时他口若悬河地向我祝酒。
• The poet eloquently expresses the sense of lost innocence. 诗人动人地表达了失去天真的感觉。

17 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

18 cocktails   

n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物

参考例句：

• Come about 4 o'clock. We'll have cocktails and grill steaks. 请四点钟左右来，我们喝鸡尾酒，吃烤牛排。 来自辞典例句
• Cocktails were a nasty American habit. 喝鸡尾酒是讨厌的美国习惯。 来自辞典例句