Daniel Craig was as much masculine as the character of James Bond needed, but it was not easy.
The actor got candid how he made the character rise above the societal conception of masculinity, something he admitted to be one of his “biggest reservations” about playing the role of the MI6 secret agent James Bond in five films throughout 15 years.
“I would say one of my biggest reservations about playing [Bond] would be the construct of masculinity,” he shared with The New Yorker in a recent conversation while promoting Queer.
“It was often very laughable, but you can’t mock it and expect it to work. You have to buy into it.”
“I mean, the vulnerability of human beings is always interesting to me,” he continued, relating the “artificial” concept of masculinity to the William S. Burroughs avatar he plays in Queer.
“We’re all vulnerable. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter how tough you are, everybody’s vulnerable. But it’s how boys are brought up, how men are expected to behave, how someone like Burroughs was expected to behave.”
He added later, “Listen, [Bond] is nearly 20 years of my life. When I took it on I was one person. I’m now a completely different person. I’m not doing this movie in response to that. I’m not that small. But I couldn’t have done this movie when I was doing Bond. It would’ve felt kind of, ‘Why? What are you trying to prove?’”
Daniel Craig has transitioned into a diverse range of roles since his tenure as James Bond, appearing in projects like the Knives Out and Queer.
Craig famously portrayed the iconic spy in five films, Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021).