In Daniel Craig’s new film, he’s seen roaming exotic locales in a white suit, drinking too much, and generally trying his best to bed the sexiest visitors. But that’s where the similarities to Craig’s most famous role end. The film is “Queer,” Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical novella of the same name. Craig plays the Burroughs avatar, an American writer named Lee who works for much younger men in post-war Mexico City. (The film was shot in Italy, on sets that conjure an atmosphere that is alternately seedy and entrancing.)

Craig has starred in the last five James Bond films, including most recently No Time to Die in 2021. In the years since, he has taken on a variety of roles that seem to mark a conscious break from his Bond image You play as a tweedy detective with a southern accent in Rian Johnson’s successful Netflix film series “Knives Out” or play Macbeth on Broadway. But his character in “Queer” is a particularly sharp departure. The book, a sequel to Burroughs’ 1985 “Junkie,” centers on Lee’s romance with a young American, played in the film by Drew Starkey. The film’s sex scenes are about as explicit as any a major male star has performed on screen with a male co-star.

Craig, now 56, lives with his wife, actress Rachel Weisz, and their young daughter. Both are British-born and recently returned to London after years in New York. Craig is known to be a candid conversationalist and once said he would rather “slit his wrists” than play 007 again. (He’s made another Bond film anyway.) He recently said that he couldn’t care less who succeeds him in the franchise, although at other times he seemed genuinely emotional about leaving the character behind. He even caused quite a stir for telling it diversity This month, Netflix is ​​set to give an extended theatrical release for the upcoming crime thriller “Knives Out,” scheduled for next fall.

Craig and I recently met at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. He came dressed informally in loose light brown trousers and a brown jacket. His hair was a bit shaggy and he was unshaven. (Some of his very un-Bond fashion choices, including in a recent advertising campaign for luxury designer Loewe, have made amused headlines in recent years.) We were sitting in the hotel lobby having a late lunch. Craig is very informal – he seems to really like to swear – but he was focused and thoughtful, never looking at his phone and not paying attention to two young women sitting near us who occasionally giggled as they tried to eavesdrop.

In our conversation, condensed for length and clarity, we discussed his experiences making “Queer,” what he wanted to convey with the film’s sex scenes, and his complicated relationship with James Bond.

How did this project come to you? Luca approached you?

Yes, Luca came to me. I met him twenty years ago in Rome. I was at a crazy actors party overlooking the Colosseum. He came and said hello. And I didn’t really know who he was, but he was kind of talking about himself and we had some vague ideas. “It will be great. We should work together someday.” Like you do.

You all do that.

I mean, that’s what you do, right? You say: Yes, sure, what a great idea. But it actually worked. And I’ve just looked at his stuff over the years and thought about how great he is and how he makes things happen.

Have you ever read Burroughs?

I read “Junkie.” Things are a little different here. I think when you go through a certain kind of university or whatever, a college education, at some point you come across Burroughs. It’s a kind of rite of passage. I don’t think it’s like that in England. But I reread “Junkie” and I read “Queer,” which is about a ten minute read. It was a really easy decision.

Have you studied Burroughs’ life? It’s pretty crazy.

It’s a crazy life. I mean, I went the biographical route and did this because I think you should. And they’re kind of fascinating. He was what we in England call a trust child.

We say that here too.

You are doing? Right. OK, so he was kind of a trust child. I mean, he wasn’t a very wealthy trust fund kid, but he had an income that is interesting to me in a lot of ways because it creates a certain type of person.

Say more.

In a way, it can take you in both directions. You can become a completely superfluous person or you can use it and try to expand yourself. And it seems to me that he was just thirsty for knowledge. He had really strange, out-of-the-way jobs. And then I went to university, and then I was in Austria, and then I really traveled and did a lot, and then I took drugs and wanted to expand my horizons that way. And as for his sexuality, I have no authority on that, but it seems to me like sex and sexuality aren’t necessarily compatible. I mean, it depends.

I do not know what you mean.

Well, with that in mind, he got married. It was probably more that he felt like he had to get married. I have no idea, but he was probably gay. And what that meant in the fifties: It was illegal. It was totally illegal, but so was being a junkie. So he was an outsider in every way.

What attracted you to playing him?

I recognized him.

From people you knew?

Yes. There’s all these recordings of him talking on TV shows or whatever, and there’s this voice he puts on that’s more “masculine.” And that felt like an act, as if he was saying, “This is William Burroughs.” This is me, a very serious literary person. And then there were clips that I could see of him being really unprepared, maybe high, maybe whatever. I’m terrible at imitating people, so that wouldn’t happen. I just wanted to find someone I could relate to. And I felt like I could relate to him because he was someone who was looking for love.

It felt like trying to play a character who behaves a certain way and isn’t completely comfortable in his own skin.

Secure. And I’m fascinated by the concept of masculinity and how artificial and constructed it is.

Do you think you’re interested in it because you’ve always been interested in it or because you played the most famous icon of masculinity of all time?

No, I’ve always been interested in it. I would say one of my biggest reservations about playing (Bond) would be the construct of masculinity. It was often very ridiculous, but you can’t make fun of it and expect it to work. You have to get involved with it.