Daniel Craig says Queer role would have made him 'self-conscious' playing Bond

December 14, 2024
Daniel Craig says Queer role would have made him 'self-conscious' playing Bond

Daniel Craig has said he could not have made Queer during his stint as James Bond, as he would have felt "self-conscious" that people thought he was "trying too hard to be a good actor".

The 56-year-old plays an American living in 1950s Mexico who falls in love with a young student, played by Drew Starkey, in the Luca Guadagnino-directed film, which is based on the William S Burroughs novella of the same name.

Speaking on Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show, Craig said Queer "blurs the lines around homosexuality".

"I couldn't have done it during Bond," he told the host.

"Not because I wouldn't have wanted to, but because I would have felt really self-conscious with people thinking I was trying too hard to be a good actor."

Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in Queer

Craig played 007 in 2006's Casino Royale, 2008's Quantum of Solace, 2012's Skyfall, 2015's Spectre, and for a final time in 2021's No Time to Die.

Speaking about why he chose to star in Queer, Craig said: "I'd read William S Burroughs's Junkie and think I pretended to read Naked Lunch but didn't know this story.

"Burroughs's experience of life always involved a lot of drugs, so the movie sets out to be a bit of a trip.

"It is all slightly off-kilter with a modern soundtrack and the feel of a movie from the 1940s.

"It blurs the lines around homosexuality, which was illegal at the time.

"You had to have a male front and hide it away with no freedom of expression and I guess I've always been fascinated by the artifice of masculinity."

The full interview will be shown on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One Northern Ireland at 11.10pm.

Queer is in cinemas now.

Source: Press Association

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