Daniel Craig's new film "Queer" has him taking on a gay role, and while the actor has drawn applause for accepting the part, he has admitted he would likely have turned it down during his time as James Bond.
Speaking with The Times of London, Craig said he did not want to give fans a different depiction of masculinity.
"I couldn't have done this while doing Bond. It would look reactionary, like I was showing my range," he said, according to Deadline.
"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."
Craig, who played Bond in five films, admitted to the outlet it would take him a year to recover each time.
"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. Incredible," he said.
"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," added.
Last month, Craig reflected on the toll fame takes while voicing his support for singer Chappell Roan, who recently spoke out about the pressures of fame and setting boundaries with fans.
"I really admire the guts to say those things," he told The New York Times. "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."
Craig previously opened up about his struggles to cope with fame after being Bond in the Apple TV+ documentary "Being James Bond."
"My personal life was affected by being that famous all of a sudden," he said while speaking in a voiceover for the production, according to the Daily Mail. "I used to lock myself in and close the curtains, I was in cloud cuckoo land. I was physically and mentally under siege."
Craig added that he did not like his newfound level of fame but explained that it was Hugh Jackman "who helped me to come to terms with it and appreciate it."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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