Daniel Craig played a gay American, William Lee, in A24’s newly-released ‘Queer’ movie alongside Drew Starkey. During a chat hosted by The Hollywood Reporter at the Folino Theater, he discussed his experience with the role and answered questions from an audience of 500 students.
He first talked about his early worries that starring in the Bond franchise would make it harder for him to be cast in other roles, saying, “That’s why I turned it down — I mean, I said, ‘No.’ There wasn’t a script at the time, so again, my arrogance was unbelievable, but I just was like, ‘Well, until I see a script, I couldn’t possibly make a decision.’”
“And it was fear, exactly what you’re talking about, of that thing and many others, how it would flip my life. I was making a pretty good living at the time, so if I’d spent my life doing what I was doing at that time, I would’ve been more than happy. But it really was one of those things where — I mean to be typecast as James Bond? Boo-hoo.”
After saying goodbye to Bond in ‘No Time To Die,’ Craig expanded his range by taking on roles in movies like ‘Glass Onion’ and ‘Queer.’ Reflecting on the period romance, adapted from William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novella, he described playing a vulnerable character like William as ‘fascinating’ after years of portraying a strong, hyper-masculine figure like 007.
“I mean Burroughs was very masculine — he shot guns and smoked weed, all these very masculine things. And that I find, again, fascinating,” he continued. “And hopefully the movie conveys a little bit of that — he walks around with a gun on his hip and sort of cowboys around town, but is a queer man in the 1950s and can’t live in the States because it’s illegal, and because he’s also a drug addict and it’s illegal, so he’s in Mexico City looking for something with a whole bunch of other men who were also there looking for something because they can’t live their lives. A lot of whom were married, a lot of whom lived very straight lives.”
“And what masculinity means? I mean, I don’t know, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to figure that out,” the actor added. “But it does fascinate me, what we perceive as masculinity and what isn’t masculinity.”
Craig also said he avoided leaning on stereotypes while portraying his character by focusing on his character’s emotional world rather than defining him by his sexuality. As for his decision to play a gay man as a straight actor, he said, “If I didn’t think I could tackle the part emotionally, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near it.”
