‘Could there be a gay James Bond?’ Queer’s Luca Guadagnino and Daniel Craig’s iconic answer
Luca Guadagnino says James Bond’s sexuality is none of our business. (MGM)
Queer movie director Luca Guadagnino and star Daniel Craig have provided an iconic answer to whether fictional character James Bond could ever be gay at the Venice Film Festival.
Daniel Craig is playing gay in his latest flick, Queer, directed by Challengers mastermind Luca Guadagnino – but he’s arguably best known for portraying 007 secret agent James Bond over five films and fifteen years.
Despite a (very) homoerotic torture scene which featured a sweaty Craig strapped to a chair having his double-0s whipped in Casino Royale, and a similarly charged chat with another supervillain in Skyfall, James Bond has always been more interested in octopussy rather than the man with the golden gun.
That’s why, when asked whether there could ever be a gay James Bond at a press event for Queer at 2024 Venice Film Festival, Luca Guadagnino stepped in to provide a fairly iconic response.
“Guys, let’s be adults in the room for a second,” he said in response to the question, which was posed by considering the juxtaposition between famously heterosexual Bond and Craig’s character in Queer.
“There is no way around the fact that nobody would ever know what James Bond desires, period,” Guadagnino continued (via The Hollywood Reporter). “The important thing is that he does his missions properly.”
Queer is adapted from the William S. Burroughs novel, and follows an outcast American expat (James Bond star Craig) who becomes infatuated with a younger man (Drew Starkey) in Mexico City in 1940s.
The film also stars Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville and Omar Apollo – who is nude for most of his screen time – and premiered at Venice Film Festival last night (3 September).
Queer has split critics, and is being hailed as “horny yet heartbreaking”.
The Times’ Kevin Maher writes that Craig “delivers possibly his best screen performance” in an otherwise negative review, but in The Telegraph, Robbie Collin says that Guadagnino’s flick is a masterpiece.
“Guadagnino’s take on the material is soul-swellingly lush and allusive,” he writes, praising Craig as “sensational in a role swimming in psychological complexity, which he marshals with rare intuition and grace”.
Craig is also set to reprise his role of Detective Benoit Blanc in the upcoming third instalment of the Knives Out franchise, alongside newcomers Andrew Scott, Josh O’Connor and more.
