Amy Stuart

The older I get, the more sexy I get,” explains Amy Smart on her perennial ranking on magazines’ lists of sexiest women. “Growing into myself and being happy with the way I am makes me feel sexy. Sexy is not how you look. It’s the energy you give off. I like some of my body parts better than others. I’ve never been a real stickler for having a perfect body. I like to look and feel good, but I’m not obsessed at the gym, because I think women are beautiful when they’re womanly and curvy.”

Smart returns as Eve in Crank: High Voltage, which hits theaters on April 17. Leading up to the sequel to the 2006 action adventure hit, Smart sat down with Playboy’s Stephen Rebello for Playboy’s April 20Q. Here’s a sneak preview:

On Crank co-star Jason Statham: “I love Jason Statham, and we got along so well doing Crank. Already being in a relationship off-screen keeps the sparks hot on-screen, though, because when you’re making a movie you can’t have that co-star. Since it’s taboo, you want them more. If you were single, you could just say, “Hey, I’m available. Bring it on.” But it was great working again with Jason on Crank 2: High Voltage. He’s a real gentleman, and we’d already gotten past that getting-to-know-each-other period."

On famous people she finds sexy: “Ralph Fiennes is so hot. Seeing him onstage in London and in the movie In Bruges, I thought, Yummy. Kate Winslet is such a great actress—sexy, curvy and gorgeous like a Botticelli. Joaquin Phoenix is one of our best actors and definitely sexy—the same for Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Jude Law. Matt Damon is very hot. He does it for me. When I met him he was the nicest guy, but being around him made me so nervous I had to drink double cosmos all night."

On her threesome kissing scene with Carmen Electra and Owen Wilson: “It’s funny, because I find more women sexy than men, but I prefer to be with men. I don’t mind kissing a girl, but when men kiss they do it with much more strength. Women kiss much softer because women are very soft and sensual."

On her Crank character: “She is sexually liberated and has taken up pole dancing professionally, which she finds empowering. She’s trying out new things on her own terms. We shot in seedy, nasty clubs in East Los Angeles, and I made sure they sanitized that pole before I did my moves."

On the most adventurous place she has had sex: “I’ve been to a lot of great places, but adventurous? I’d say on the beach in Bali, where we had been relaxing on vacation for days. We were both tan. The sun was going down. It was gorgeous and warm, and the beach was pretty deserted—but not entirely. I felt like we were living a dream, even if it was only temporary."

On being a member of the mile-high club: “Yeah, in the bathroom, which makes me a member of the mile-high club. One key to a great relationship is a healthy sex life. My boyfriend loves to buy me sexy lingerie, and when he’s lucky I give him a little show. Maybe it would be hot if I bought him a policeman’s uniform.

Danie Craig

Daniel Craig has earned his license to kill. When it was announced that he would replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, the near-universal reaction was outrage. Bond fans in the U.K. went so far as to launch a website that included doctored photos of Craig as Vladimir Putin and Al Bundy and called for a boycott of the actor. The press skewered him as “Bland, James Bland.”

But then came Craig’s performance as Bond in Casino Royale, arguably one of the best 007 pictures. The new Bond was favorably compared to the legendary, adored Sean Connery, who also sang Craig’s praises. Craig’s former critics ate crow, admitting he was the first to truly capture Bond creator Ian Fleming’s dark, occasionally vicious characterization. The Boston Globe wrote, “The most mocked of Bonds is now fast on his way to generating perhaps the best reviews of anyone in the 007 club for his brutal and engrossing performance.”

The film grossed nearly $600 million, trouncing earlier 007 films and setting the bar high for Quantum of Solace, the new Bond installment, opening this month. In the movie, which picks up an hour after Casino Royale leaves off, Craig, 40, is back—moodier and more pissed off than ever. Bond’s overriding modus operandi: revenge, following the murder of Vesper, his lover in the earlier film.

Craig is from Chester, England, where his father was a merchant seaman and owned a pub called Ring O’ Bells. After his parents split, in 1972, Craig was raised by his mother, an art teacher, in Liverpool. He left school at 16 to study at the National Youth Theater in London. He earned his living as a waiter and enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music & Drama at the Barbican, where he studied alongside Ewan McGregor and Joseph Fiennes. He graduated in 1991.

When Craig was selected to play Bond, much was made about his size (at five-foot-11, he’s the shortest Bond), his piercing blue eyes and his hair color (he’s the first blond). But he has subsequently been crowned one of the sexiest men by Elle magazine. And apparently he’ll soon leave bachelorhood behind: He is romantically linked to Satsuki Mitchell, the actress who accompanied him to the Casino Royale world premiere. He has a teenage daughter, Ella, from a previous marriage.

Soon after Craig completed the filming of Quantum of Solace in Italy, Australia and South America, Playboy sent contributing editor David Sheff, who recently interviewed Fareed Zakaria for the magazine, to meet Craig in London. Sheff reports: “When I arrived in the U.K., a customs agent asked if I was there on business or pleasure. I explained I was in town to interview Daniel Craig, at which point her mood swung from chilly and suspicious to swooning. ‘Oh my God,’ she said, almost hyperventilating. ‘His photo’s near my bed. He’s the sexiest.’

“He’s also an impressive actor, as I was reminded before the interview when I attended screenings of Quantum of Solace and Defiance, in which Craig plays one of three brothers who hide, and save, hundreds of Belarusan Jews from Hitler’s local collaborators. The contrast between the roles couldn’t have been more extreme, but Craig rose to the occasion in both the action-adventure and dramatic films.

“And yes, he’s charming and suave. He drank coffee, not martinis, but he’s Bond-like even in blue jeans instead of a Brioni suit.”