Iconic "James Bond" star Daniel Craig had a humorous reaction to a journalist asking him if the legendary spy could ever be depicted as a homosexual.
During a press conference at the Venice Film Festival this week for his upcoming film "Queer," the "No Time to Die" actor rolled his eyes when a reporter asked him, "Do you think there could be a gay James Bond?"
Craig smiled and dismissed the question, adding, "I mean, really."
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"Queer" director Luca Guadagnino then chimed in, saying, "Guys, let's be adult in the room for a second."
"Thank you," Craig added.
Craig, who finished his final film as James Bond in 2021’s "No Time To Die," stars in Guadagnino’s new film about a drug-addicted gay man, who falls in love with another man in Mexico during the 1950s.
"Queer," which will be released later this year, has already made headlines for its intimate love scenes between the 56-year-old actor and 30-year-old Drew Starkey, the actor portraying his bisexual lover in the film.
Guadagnino followed up Craig’s exasperated response to the reporter by explaining that no one cares about the famous fictional spy’s sexuality.
"There is no way around the fact that nobody would never know James Bond’s desires period," the director said, eliciting applause among the audience and Craig, who clapped in approval.
Guadagnino added, "The important thing is he does his missions properly."
Despite the filmmaker’s claims that Bond’s desires are unknown, the famous movie spy has been portrayed as a womanizer since appearing on the big screen in the 1960s.
In Craig’s last turn as 007 in "No Time to Die," the actor explored the spy’s romantic desires even more closely, portraying Bond’s turn from scoundrel to family man, sacrificing his life to save his girlfriend and child.
Craig’s exchange with the journalist at the Venice Film Festival is not the first time a change to Bond’s identity has been suggested. In recent years, there have been rumors that filmmakers were considering making Bond a female character, or casting a person of color to play him.
In 2020, Bond series producer Barbara Broccoli laid to rest the idea that Bond could be a woman, but added he could be portrayed by an actor of a different race.
He can be of any color, but he is male," Broccoli explained. "I believe we should be creating new characters for women — strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that."
Craig himself echoed that sentiment in a 2021 interview with Radio Times, asking, "Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?"
In 2023, a newly authorized Bond novel was criticized for being "woke" for having an anti-trans, Trump-associated villain.
The story, by author Charlie Higson, featured 007 observing that a villainous gathering has a lack of "diversity" or "disabled" representation.
"Bond was struck by something. It was a long while since he’d been at any kind of function that was almost exclusively full of men. It felt strange. There was not even a pretense at diversity here," the book states, later noting that the villain Aethelstan "hadn’t been the least bit concerned about ensuring that half of the people he’d hired to carry out his coup should be women, non-White, or disabled."
