‘Queer’: Daniel Craig Would Have Been “Terrified” To Star In Luca Guadagnino’s Film When He Was James Bond

There’s no way Daniel Craig would’ve made “Queer” with Luca Guadagnino back when he was James Bond; it wouldn’t have fit his “brand” at the time, a stage in the actor’s career he’s glad is over.

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IndieWire reports (via The New York Times) that Craig discussed how he can’t fathom playing the role of William Lee in “Queer” during his Bond tenure, which lasted from 2006 to 2021.  Personally, Craig felt playing the superspy was more than enough.  But the actor also thinks playing a role as challenging as Lee during that period may have come across as a gimmick to audiences: a winking refusal to be typecast, as it were.

“I wouldn’t have done it,” Craig explained about doing “Queer” even ten years ago. “I was so wrapped up in Bond and what that was, I would have been terrified of doing something like this.” And around the time of “Casino Royale” and “Quantum Of Solace“?  Forget about it.  Craigh continued, “Especially early on with Bond, I was like, ‘This is enough. Stay in my lane.”

Craig’s time as 007 lasted 15 years and five films: an extraordinary opportunity for the British actor, but also a brand that kept him from exploring more diverse roles like Lee, or even Detective Benoit Blance in the “Knives Out” movies. The actor doesn’t think staying “on brand” should dictate one’s fame and career, but it often does. “It shouldn’t lead the way,” Craig said of the Bond role being the measure of his acting talents and keeping him from various other parts. “Will the audience respond? You do have to take care of your audience in film, I think, but you can’t really be winking at them while you’re making it.”

In that sense, “Queer” is a welcome change of pace for Craig, but not a deliberate change on his part. “Someone interviewed me the other day saying, ‘How long has it taken you to think up this brand change?’” Craig continued, disavowing that idea. “Celebrity kills you.  Really, it’s a terrible, terrible thing that can happen and I think you’ve got to really fight against all of the things that it throws in your face, because it’s so easy to be tempted. Generating and maintaining that brand is about how much exposure you have.”

But is Craig’s “Queer” character Lee, a gay WWII vet expatriate shambling through Mexico City drunk and in unrequited love, part of the actor’s “brand”?  Certainly, even if it’s a much different masculinity than James Bond’s. “I recognize the character in myself,” Craig said about Lee. “I recognize the pain, the longing, the yearning, the love, the difficulty and all the faults.  I’ve had to examine myself a lot over the past 20 years to try and deal with it. There was a time when I locked myself away. This is where the madness lies: You think, ‘I can’t go there because I’m so important.’ I find it really hard, this job, and it gets harder as I get older.” But Craig also recognizes Bond’s masculinity is as much as performance as Lee’s more desperate variety. “Sometimes I find it very laughable, the idea of maleness,” the actor added. “Most men go through life with this act that they do. But it is an act.”

So what acts does Craig have in store for audiences next?  Well, he’ll reprise Benoit Blanc again in Rian Johnson‘s “Wake Up Dead Man,” in production now.  But after that, the actor may reunite with Guadagnino on another project: a “Sgt. Rock” movie for DC Studios.  That’d be a surprising pivot for both Craig and his “Queer” director, but Guada has a knack for getting his name attached to projects that eventually peter out.  

And what about returning to Bond? When Variety asked Craig, “If you were to pass the James Bond torch, who would you love to see play him?,” Craig, laughing, replied, “I don’t care.” It sounds like the actor’s brand now lies in greener pastures, not in 007’s tuxedo.