Mila Kunis Talks Working with Daniel Craig on ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ (Exclusive)

Mila Kunis wasn’t sure how to unravel the mystery of Daniel Craig at first.

While inside the PEOPLE/EW and Shutterstock studio at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, Sept. 6, the actress admitted that working with Craig on Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was a bit of an unknown for her, even though she has “had the pleasure of working with his wife,” Rachel Weisz, in the past, on 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful.

Kunis, 42, was put at ease considering Weisz, 55, is “such a wonderful human that I was like, ‘There’s no way that [Daniel] won’t be a wonderful person to work with’ ” too. Her hypothesis was put to the test on “day one,” as her first two weeks on Wake Up Dead Man were with Craig, 57, and her “character is very much tied to his character,” detective Benoit Blanc.

Her initial thoughts? ” ‘This could go either which way,’ ” Kunis recalls. ” ‘This is going to be a really lovely production, or we’re going to be in our own [bubbles, and] it’s going to be fine.’ “

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But luckily, “I would say within the first two hours, Daniel set the greatest tone for not only the cast, but also the crew,” Kunis says.

She continues of both Craig and writer-director Rian Johnson, “When you step onto the set every morning, it’s just like a lovely, ‘We’ve got this, we’re going to have fun, we’re going to do it, we’re going to work hard, but we’re going to respect one another.’ “

“And it was every single day the same. And he’s got a lot to do. I mean, he is in everything,” she continues of Craig. “And there’s monologue after monologue. And this man was capable of staying sharp and being so professional, and knew exactly how to toe the line of having fun with people.”

While not part of the extensive Wake Up Dead Man cast, Adulthood star Josh Gad hilariously crashed their interview at TIFF and joked, “What’s crazy about this movie is Daniel’s the killer.”

“F—!” exclaimed Craig, who was seated near Kunis for the interview, as she added, “That would’ve been amazing.”

Craig plays Benoit Blanc for the third time Wake Up Dead Man, following the success of 2019’s original Knives Out and 2022’s follow-up Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

The former James Bond actor is joined by new cast members Kunis, Glenn Close, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Josh O’Connor and Andrew Scott in the latest installment of Johnson’s hit franchise.

Speaking with PEOPLE on the red carpet during the movie’s world premiere at TIFF on Saturday, Craig reflected on the third of Johnson’s “extraordinary” murder mystery movies, raving of his character in particular, “How lucky am I to get to play something like this?”

Asked whether Wake Up Dead Man marks the end of his playing the iconic character, Craig quips, “Who told you that? Listen, I don’t know. Rian hasn’t written anything because we’re getting this movie out.”

But if the writer-director, 51, “writes another script and it’s as good as I think it probably will be, then it’s an easy decision,” Craig adds.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is in theaters Nov. 26 and on Netflix Dec. 12. The 2025 Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 4–14.