Daniel Craig admits "I couldn't have done" new movie Queer while playing James Bond

The 56-year-old, who plays an American living in 1950s Mexico called William Lee that falls in love with a young student, said the Luca Guadagnino film “blurs the lines around homosexuality” while speaking on tonght’s episode of The Graham Norton Show.

The Chester-born actor played 007 for five films, starting with 2006’s Casino Royale and ending with No Time To Die in 2021. Since then, speculation has been rife about who will be cast to play the next James Bond.

Craig said: “I couldn’t have done it during Bond. Not because I wouldn’t have wanted to, but because I would have felt really self-conscious with people thinking I was trying too hard be a good actor.

“I’d read William S Burroughs’s Junkie and think I pretended to read Naked Lunch but didn’t know this story. Burroughs’s experience of life always involved a lot of drugs, so the movie sets out to be a bit of a trip.

“It is all slightly off-kilter with a modern soundtrack and the feel of a movie from the 1940s. It blurs the lines around homosexuality, which was illegal at the time.

“You had to have a male front and hide it away with no freedom of expression and I guess I’ve always been fascinated by the artifice of masculinity.”

Craig is married to actress Rachel Weisz and is also known for appearing in films including Sylvia (2003), The Golden Compass (2007) and Knives Out (2019).

Queer will be released in UK cinemas on December 13, with the full interview with Graham Norton being broadcast on tonight’s show from 10.40am.