I'm modelling my Bond villain on Tony Blair says French actor Mathieu Amalric

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French actor Mathieu Amalric, who plays the film's sinister villain, said he modelled his character to some extent on Tony Blair.

He said: "I've been taking details, the smile of Tony Blair, the craziness of Sarkozy (French President), he's the worst villain we've ever had. He's really dangerous. In fact he walks around thinking he's in a Bond film."

Unlike many of the Bond villains Amalric's character Dominic Greene will not be so hot with his fists.

He said: "He was supposed to have a secret skill. But we had this idea that maybe if the villain doesn't know how to fight, James Bond would be more surprised. Sometimes anger can be much more dangerous.

"I'm going to fight like in school. I was going to say 'like a woman'."

He joked of playing the part: "You are allowed to do things that you are not allowed to do in real life, especially with a woman."

A modern villain was "like a gas" and could be found anywhere.

Bond girl Kurylenko admitted today that she had never seen a Bond film until she reached the age of 16 when she moved from her Ukrainian homeland to France.

The 28-year-old said she still hadn't seen any of the movies before Pierce Brosnan took up the role but that she'd got the box set of 20 films to find out what she'd been missing.

She said: "Who doesn't want to be a Bond girl? It's a cult movie. I'm not worried about being stereotyped.

"Camille is a strong independent woman who is charming and sensual. Bond women are strong at the same time as being feminine.

"I've never worked so hard training for any other movie, I'm using weapons, driving cars and involved in fight scenes."

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Quantum of Solace

Craig said of the title: "It's been going around for a while.

"We could have found a nippy title. There were plenty of those suggestions for things that would like good on the poster but the last film took Bond to a new place and this is meant to do the same again.

"This title is meant to confuse a little. It's meant to make you sort of wonder.

"We want people to start thinking as they come and see the film."

But he added: "But that doesn't mean that it is going to be character-driven kitchen sink drama. We're making a Bond movie."

Despite the fact that the title comes from a short story the screenplay for the new movie will be completely original.

But Craig said of the story that the title is taken from: "It debates relationships and how they hurt and how people can be hurt. I think it relates to how Fleming was feeling at the time.

"I think it relates to the fact that if you don't have that Quantum of Solace in a relationship you should give up. If you are not respecting each other it's over, and at the end of the last movie Bond doesn't have that because his girlfriend has been killed."

Craig, who spoke for the first time about the movie after shooting a scene of the interior of MI6, was sporting a plaster on his thumb following a stunt injury from using ropes.

He described British actress Arterton as a "rising star".

He said of reprising the scene where he comes out of the ocean: "I'm not going to put them trunks on ever again but there will be a certain amount of nudity in this movie."

He said of the new film: "I'm as nervous as I was before if not a little more than before. We thought the last film was great but who knew that people would respond in the way that they did?

"We owe to people who saw the last movie to give them something even better."

He said of the new Bond instalment: "There is revenge, a fight within him and a need to do his job, to solve this riddle that has been given him.

"Everything that he understood about the world has been turned upside down ... because he has fallen in love."

Craig defended the violence in Casino Royale, saying it was "wrong" to glamorise violence and that the Bond film had shown real consequences.

The heartthrob said of his fitness routine: "The last time around I bulked up and got big. I wanted to look like someone who had just been in the army.

"For this one I needed to get fitter but in a different way. There's a lot of physical activity and I needed to step up my cardiovascular fit."