Daniel Craig wouldn't have played Queer role while still James Bond

Daniel Craig would not have taken the role of a gay man in Luca Guadagnino's Queer if he were still playing James Bond.

The 56-year-old actor bowed out as 007 back in 2021 with No Time to Die and is enjoying the freedom of no longer playing the world's most famous secret agent.

In Guadagnino's film he plays William Lee, a gay character in the adaptation of William S. Burroughs semi-autobiographical novella.

However, he told The Times that it's not a role he would've taken before signing off as Bond.

"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."

The British actor also pared back his work schedule while making his five 007 movies to allow himself to mentally recover after each film.

"Early on with Bond I thought I had to do other work, but I didn't. I was becoming a star, whatever that means, and people wanted me in their films," he explained.

"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."