WATCH: Daniel Craig on Bond Drinking Beer, Product Placement in ‘Skyfall’

Daniel Craig in an ad for Heineken beer. (Photo: Heineken)

Some James Bond fans have been claiming it’s wrong that 007 drinks beer in Skyfall because it’s totally out of character with his Martini-sipping image.

The presence of beer in the film is the result of a lucrative product placement deal that Heineken made with the film’s producers.

Daniel Craig says: “I whore myself out a little bit for that and we get the movie made. People make such a big deal out of it — it’s unfortunate — but we get the movies made and that’s all that matters.”

But one concerned die-hard fan, Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett, who lives in New York, isn’t happy: “Bond’s not supposed to drink beer. Bond’s supposed to have a 54 Dom Perignon, perfectly chilled. I can’t help but think it’s selling out a little bit.”

Craig concedes that product placement is a necessary evil: “I think it is unfortunately, and it’s not like it’s something new. It’s been happening for the past fifty years so I don’t see it as such a big deal.”

But some filmmakers do see product placement as a possible problem in terms of artistic control. They charge an advertiser might try to interfere with what an actor says or does in a scene where their merchandise is being shown.

Product placement deals have been an important source of revenue for Skyfall generating one third of the film’s estimated 150 million dollar budget.