Daniel Craig says he “couldn’t” have played a role like that of the gay protagonist of Queer during his 15-year run as James Bond because it would have looked “reactionary”.
The actor has been drawing rave reviews for his turn in the new William S Burroughs adaptation, directed by Challengers filmmaker Luca Guadagnino.
Speaking to The Times, Craig opened up about his inability to take on roles such as this while he was playing 007.
“I couldn’t have done this while doing Bond. It would look reactionary, like I was showing my range,” he said.
“It’s just not a conversation I wanted. I had it all the way through Bond anyway. Could there be this Bond? That Bond? So anything that is going to inflame that conversation? No – life’s too short.”
Craig played Bond in five films between 2006 and 2021, starting with the franchise’s soft reboot Casino Royale.
In the interview, he also spoke about the toll that the Bond films used to take on him, revealing that he needed half a year to recover “emotionally” after each one.
“Early on with Bond I thought I had to do other work, but I didn’t,” he said. “I was becoming a star, whatever that means, and people wanted me in their films. Incredible…
“I was so exhausted at the end of a Bond it would take me six months to recover emotionally. I always had the attitude that life must come first and, when work came first for a while, it strung me out.”
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It’s been three years since Craig stepped down as Bond, and his successor is still yet to be announced.
While reports earlier this year suggested that Kraven the Hunter star Aaron Taylor-Johnson was being lined up to play the spy, a number of other actors have also been touted by fans.
These include Regé-Jean Page, Cillian Murphy, and Idris Elba, though Elba has poured cold water on the suggestion that he is in the running to take over.
In an interview last month, Bond producer Barbra Broccoli gave a hint at the selection process behind Craig’s successor, revealing that the actor will “likely be in his 30s,” and that “whiteness is not a given”.
“Every time we cast a new actor, the films change. It’s the excitement of a new Bond, a new direction,” Broccoli’s co-producer and brother Michael G Wilson said.
“Every one of these people who took on the role offered something new and different.”