Over the more than three decades during which Daniel Craig has been acting in the movies, there’s not much that the British A-lister hasn’t done. Most famously, he played James Bond in five films over 15 years (2006’s Casino Royale, 2008’s Quantum of Solace, 2012’s Skyfall, 2015’s Spectre and 2021’s No Time to Die). He has also worked with many of the greatest filmmakers (e.g. Steven Spielberg on 2005’s Oscar-nominated Munich and David Fincher on 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and actors (e.g. Tom Hanks and Paul Newman on 2002’s Road to Perdition) of his time. And he is at the center of Netflix’s biggest film franchise (playing detective Benoit Blanc in 2019’s Knives Out, 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and the forthcoming Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery).
Never, though, has Craig, 56, been nominated for an Oscar. That could soon change thanks to his massively acclaimed portrayal of a William S. Burroughs surrogate — William Lee, a gay American living in exile in 1950s Mexico City who is addicted to booze, drugs and sex — in Luca Guadagnino’s new A24 film Queer, an adaptation of Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical 1985 novella of the same name.
In mid-November, Craig came to Chapman University in Orange County to record a special episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, on which he previously guested in 2022. This time, he fielded questions about his life, career and latest film from not only yours truly, but also from some of the 500 students who packed the Folino Theater. Below, you can listen to the full session or read a transcript of it that has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
FEINBERG Thank you so much for being here. I’m going to start off with a few questions and then we’ll incorporate student questions. To begin with, can you share with us where you were born and raised and what your parents did for a living?
CRAIG I was born in the city of Chester, which is about 20, 30 miles south of Liverpool, and raised in Liverpool. My mother was a teacher in Liverpool. My father ran pubs and lots of other things. And my mother was very connected with the theater community in Liverpool, so I suppose that’s where I got my bug.
FEINBERG You left home when you were 16 to pursue acting?
CRAIG Yeah, I was 16. It was the early ’80s in Liverpool, one of the most depressed times in the city’s history. Most people in Liverpool blame Margaret Thatcher for starving the city, which I tend to agree with — I mean, there was terrible unemployment, there was nothing happening, there were no opportunities. I was contemplating joining the Navy. I was thinking about all sorts of avenues, because there were just no opportunities. I knew I wanted to act, but what were my outlets? There was a thing called the National Youth Theatre, which still exists as an organization, which auditions young actors from all over the country and then gets them together for a summer course. I went down to London on a summer course when I was 16 and never left.
FEINBERG You were working professionally pretty quickly. What prepped you most, if anything can prep you, to go from the stage, where you did your training, to the screen?
CRAIG Just dumb luck. I was at drama school. I did three years at drama school in London, at a really good school, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and had an amazing time. But I remember we had an accountant who was in the business come in and give us a talk, who opened with, “90% of you are not going to work.” And you’re like, “Oh, okay. Great. Whoa, can’t wait.” So the attrition rate is just dreadful. I left drama school early to go and do a Warner Bros. movie in Zimbabwe with the director John G. Avildsen, who directed Rocky and The Karate Kid.
FEINBERG Is this The Power of One?
CRAIG Yeah, The Power of One. And I was making movies. So in fact I did study theater and thought that’s where my future was. But actually, I ended up doing movies straight off the bat.
FEINBERG Did you find that there was a marked difference between how you had to act on stage versus for a camera?
CRAIG I don’t know if I thought about it that much. I got on this plane and flew to Zimbabwe. I was there for three-and-a-half months. I didn’t have a very big part — I was the bad guy, and I had to learn a South African accent. My first scene in the movie was to walk down these stairs with a can of gasoline, shaking the gasoline — it was water — speaking in this very bad Afrikaans accent, throw the gasoline through the window of this shop, light a match, say my line, and throw the match into the building, where the gas jets were ready, and walk off. That was my first scene in the movie. I was like, “Go.” I remember the director coming up to me [and complimenting], “God, you’re so still! So still!” But I was just shitting myself — I literally was shitting myself — and nothing much has changed. [laughs] It’s how I act now, basically. They’re always talking about my stillness, but I’m just shitting myself.
FEINBERG We were chatting earlier about how, up until you appeared in the film Love Is the Devil, you primarily appeared in — I’d never heard this phrase, what was it?
CRAIG Euro-puddings.
FEINBERG Euro-puddings. Can you explain what those were?
CRAIG I mean, the British film industry was sort of— Listen, there were amazing films, like My Beautiful Laundrette, but I wasn’t in them. Bitter much, me? I was getting little roles in television and earning a living, which was actually all I’d ever wanted to do. All my ambition had really got to was, “Can I eke a living out doing this?” And I was doing that. But I just suddenly saw this future going out in front of me, “I’m going to be in television.” I have no problem with television — certainly now is the golden age of television — but I desperately wanted to make movies. They had these movies that were being made in Europe, and they wanted English-speaking actors because with them they could sell the movies on a bigger market. They’d get a few names, maybe an old American actor, someone who could raise a bit of money. And it was a bit of German money, a bit of French money, a bit of Irish money. All run by crooks — I mean, just absolute gangsters washing their money in film. Nothing much has changed there in the film industry, if I’m being honest. But I worked with some incredible people. I worked with a guy called David Watkin, who’s a lighting cameraman who invented — it’s not used anymore, but it was called the Wendy Light, because his nickname was “Wendy.” I’ll let you make your own judgment about that. A Wendy Light was basically a light that was put onto a cherrypicker and was put over a set and was like moonlight, because in old movies you’d shoot day for night; they used to shoot on arc lights, which are these incredible lights, incredibly bright. He got an Oscar for Chariots of Fire. So I got a chance to work with people like that, which was a massive experience. These movies went nowhere and didn’t make much money, but I was doing what I wanted to do, which was making movies. And I finally got this break. This film Love Is the Devil came along.
FEINBERG So The Power of One, that first film, came out in 1992. Love is the Devil came out in 1998.
CRAIG We shot it in ’96.
FEINBERG It is, in a way, a bookend with Queer, and the fact that you’re in Queer relates back to Love Is the Devil. In it you play the younger lover of Francis Bacon, the painter, played by Derek Jacobi. This came about because of someone named Mary Selway. Can you share who she was and how you came to that film?
CRAIG Mary Selway was a brilliant casting director who sadly died way too young. When Spielberg would go to London, and everybody went to London, Mary would do the casting. And she took a shine to me. I mean, it’s one of those beautiful things in life that happens when someone mentors you. She said I needed to do this film. I was like, “It’s a low-budget art movie about some painter.” I’d been out most of the night and it was 8:00 on a Sunday morning when the phone rang and I went, “Hello?” She said, “Daniel, it’s Mary.” And I went, “Yeah.” “You’re doing this movie.” And I went, “Okay, Mary. Okay.” And put the phone down. I’m blessed that I had a couple of people in my life who were like that, who just pushed me in the right direction.
FEINBERG And that ended up being a more meaty part and a more widely-seen film than you’d been associated with up to that point?
CRAIG Right, yeah. But as we were talking backstage about it, it came out and it went to Cannes in ’96 and didn’t really hit here until ’98. And in fact, as I was telling you backstage, it was Madonna that had something to do with it — it became her favorite movie, and she put the word out there and then people saw it. You couldn’t plan that.
FEINBERG I’m going to mention a few other early roles and ask if anything about them stands out to you. You were Angelina Jolie’s boyfriend in Lara Croft, Tomb Raider in 2001. Your first large-scale movie, I guess?
CRAIG Yep.
FEINBERG You were — and this is going to be significant when we come to Bond — cast in Sam Mendes’ follow-up to his first movie, American Beauty, which won the best picture Oscar. Road to Perdition starred Tom Hanks and featured Paul Newman’s last big screen appearance, and you played the son of an Irish mob boss. Did you and Sam hit it off right away?
CRAIG Yeah. Yes, Sam asked me to come in. He was at Neal Street at the time because he was running the Donmar. I think his office is still there; his company is called Neal Street Studios. I came into Neal Street, which is in Covent Garden in London, I walked in, sat down, and he said, “I’m doing a movie in Chicago and I want you to play Paul Newman’s son.” And I went, “Okay, fine. I don’t need to know anymore.” And I left. He sort of offered me the job. And then he said, “I need you to fly out to Chicago because I need to audition you.” I was like, “Oh. That sucks.” He said, “Can you learn these lines and do a Chicago accent?” I went, “Yeah.” And I didn’t. I was so lazy, it was just ridiculous. But I flew to Chicago, went to the offices there and sat down with him. We did this reading and after about five minutes he went, “Stop. Please stop. You’ve got the job. Can you learn the accent?” I went, “I can. Really, I swear to God, I can.”
FEINBERG And that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
CRAIG It was. Then he took me out and the first person he introduced me to was Connie [Conrad] Hall, who was the cinematographer on that, and who had shot Cool Hand Luke. I became very close to Connie on that.
FEINBERG Wasn’t it his last movie as well?
CRAIG It was, yeah.
FEINBERG Ted Hughes in 2003’s Sylvia, with Gwyneth Paltrow.
CRAIG An angry poet.
FEINBERG Then there’s two films in back-to-back years directed by Roger Michell, The Mother in 2003 and Enduring Love in 2004. You had a particular fondness for him?
CRAIG Very much. Roger, who sadly died, God, I don’t know, is it two years ago now? Too young. And it’s really very sad because we always had the plan to do the third, which we never got around to. I did The Mother, which was written by a brilliant writer, Hanif Kureishi, who wrote My Beautiful Laundrette and a brilliant television program called Buddha of Suburbia, who’s incredible and still around, thankfully, who writes very punk rock. I was supposed to be a builder, but then the character’s just a waste of time really, and he has an affair with a 65-year-old woman. It’s a little bit like Harold and Maude, but with a bit more violence and maybe a bit more graphic than what Harold and Maude was.
FEINBERG Also in 2004 was Layer Cake, Matthew Vaughn’s directorial debut. You play a suave, nameless cocaine dealer. That planted the seed for Bond?
CRAIG I guess. I don’t know. People tell me that and I go, “Probably.” I mean, I wasn’t thinking in that way, but yes, I suppose it was the first part I’d played someone who wasn’t a drug addict. I stood up straight and was quite clean cut.
FEINBERG Now the last pre-Bond thing was Steven Spielberg’s Munich. You agreed to do the film and then he tried to put you in a different part?
CRAIG Oh, yeah, that’s right. Steven wanted me to play Ciaran Hinds’ part. He said, “I want you to play that part.” I said, “Nope, I’m not playing that.” I mean, if Steven Spielberg were to turn around to you and tell you you’re going to play the other part, I suppose you should say, “Of course.” But I just was, I don’t know — arrogant, I think, is the word I was looking for.
FEINBERG Were you bluffing? Were you actually prepared to walk away?
CRAIG I’m always bluffing. All I’ve got is my bluff. [laughs]
FEINBERG Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who on Saturday will be presented with honorary Oscars, are the producers of the Bond films. The Pierce Brosnan era came to an end and they began looking at 200 actors across three continents over a period of two years. Barbara says she first met you at the aforementioned Mary Selwyn’s—
CRAIG Funeral, yes.
FEINBERG But she says she’d been monitoring your career ever since you played a supporting part opposite Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth back in 1998. How did you learn that you were being considered for the part of Bond? And how did the casting process unfold?
CRAIG I’d met Barbara at the funeral. Barbara had organized the funeral. In fact, I had gone to India and I was on the airplane flying to India, because I was supposed to go to India for a holiday for a week, and I got the call from Barbara that the family wanted me to go back and be one of the pallbearers. So I basically flew to India for two days, got sick as a dog and flew back again. I remember being at this funeral. We all were there, the whole of the acting community in London. And Barbara came up to me at a certain point and went, “Can you come and have a cup of tea?” I was like, “Yeah, sure.” Not knowing what that was code for. I went to an office in Piccadilly at EON, sat down with them, and she basically offered me the job there and then.
FEINBERG Outright?
CRAIG Outright. It was a bit more complicated than that. But that’s what—
FEINBERG Had there been rumors where your name had come up, or anything like that?
CRAIG There’s always rumors aren’t there? I mean, I’d worked with a number of actors who were kind of in the running and they talked to me about that thing that happened, that suddenly your name’s in the mix. I’m always so oblivious to this. I’m the last to know. I really am. You know, things go on on set, and after the movie’s finished, I’m like, “They were having an affair with who?!” It all goes over my head. So that was going on, I think, and I was supposedly in the running. I mean, Steven [Spielberg] did this thing — it was my last scene in Munich, and Eric [Bana] and I had to run with guns down the side of this wall, and he said, “Action,” and then suddenly it was over these big speakers: “Dun, dun, dun, dun” [the Bond theme music]. So I mean, it was obviously in the air. But seriously, I was like, “It can’t be. It’s very nice. But me and 200 other people? Come on.”
FEINBERG And as a kid or even young actor, had you wanted to play the part?
CRAIG Sure, like Batman and Spider-Man, but you can’t play them all. I wanted to be all of those people. But when I was actually acting, it didn’t enter my thoughts. I thought that was the last thing that would ever happen to me.
FEINBERG Let’s take our first student question.
STUDENT As it began to look like a serious possibility that you might be offered Bond, were you nervous that accepting that role might make it harder for casting directors, filmmakers and the public to see you in other roles?
CRAIG Yes, for sure. That’s why I turned it down — I mean, I said, “No.” There wasn’t a script at the time, so again, my arrogance was unbelievable, but I just was like, “Well, until I see a script, I couldn’t possibly make a decision.” And it was fear, exactly what you’re talking about, of that thing and many others, how it would flip my life. I was making a pretty good living at the time, so if I’d spent my life doing what I was doing at that time, I would’ve been more than happy. But it really was one of those things where — I mean to be typecast as James Bond? Boo-hoo.
STUDENT Before you started shooting Casino Royale, did you either reach out to or hear from any of the prior Bonds? And if so, what was the best piece of advice that they gave you?
CRAIG I sat next to Pierce [Brosnan] at an event and talked to him about it and he just went, “Go for it. Just go for it.” He had nothing really else to say. Which I took to heart. I went for it.
FEINBERG Casino Royale was the first Bond film written and released after 9/11, which I’m sure in some ways must have shaped it, but there’s another aspect of your Bond that was certainly different than prior ones…
STUDENT Your portrayal of James Bond transformed the character into someone deeply human and vulnerable. Whose idea was it to present the character like that and why was that important to do?
CRAIG I’m interested in lots of things, but I wasn’t interested in doing a copy of something, or representing something, or doing something that somebody else had done. And also, as an actor, the only thing that really gets me up in the morning is the emotional journey of a character. I knew who James Bond was, I’d done the research, and I wanted to keep it within those parameters. But within those parameters, I wanted to explore vulnerability, I wanted to explore whether there was a human person inside that. I didn’t know how else to do it. Honestly, I mean, it sounds like, “This is what I was going to do,” but I actually don’t know how else to act.
STUDENT Throughout your journey of portraying James Bond, which scene or sequence demanded the most from you?
CRAIG When you’re in the middle of doing it, especially with a Bond, you’re rehearsing fight scenes on your day off. It’s a seven-days-a-week job when you’re shooting. There are so many difficult scenes. I can tell you, standing in a window in Siena with a tiny little rope attached to my back that seemed thinner than my finger, with a harness on, and a bus coming towards me and a stuntman going, “Go,” was quite hard. The idea was for me to jump out the window and for it to look like I was going to jump onto the bus, and I would come down about 10 feet off the top of the bus as it drove under me. Stuff like that. But I look back and I just go, “Wow, great.” People ask me if I skydive and do stuff like that. And I was like, “In my spare time?” But as far as acting is concerned, and emotional scenes and all of that, it just like, that’s why I get up and go to work.
FEINBERG The volume of stuff you did in-between the Bond films, both on screen and on stage, is pretty remarkable. The first film in-between was Defiance, Edward Zwick’s movie about these three brothers who resisted the Nazis from the forests and saved more than a thousand fellow Jews…
STUDENT When you were considering films to do between Bond projects, were you deliberately seeking out roles that were very different from Bond?
CRAIG I think I was at first, yes. And I think that I felt like I had to prove myself. And after a while I just realized that I didn’t have the energy to do that. It’s not knocking movies like Defiance, because I’m very proud of them. But Bond is your life when you’re doing it — each movie is about two years out of your life; you’re away from home for over six months; and the idea of fitting something else in because of the need to prove to the world that I’ve got range, it’s kind of ridiculous, so I stopped doing that. There’s some movies I did do that I’m incredibly proud of. But I was exhausted while doing those films. It was better just to concentrate on the Bonds.
FEINBERG Your first Bond, Casino Royale, was a huge hit — the highest grossing Bond movie to that point. Then came Quantum of Solace in 2008. That is the one Bond installment of yours that took some flak.
CRAIG Difficult second album.
FEINBERG It was at the time of the writer’s strike that they were trying to put it together.
CRAIG Fucking nightmare. Paul Haggis did a pass on the script, then he went off and joined a picket line, and we didn’t have writers, so we didn’t have a script. We probably should never have gone and started production, but we did. I ended up writing a lot of that film — I probably shouldn’t really say, and I do not want a credit, it’s fine — but we were in that state because that’s what we’re allowed to do. I was allowed to work. Under WGA rules we were allowed to work with a director and write scenes. But there’s some amazing stunt sequences in that, and I’m still bearing the pins to prove it, so in that sense there’s a lot of great stuff in it, but it just didn’t quite work. The storytelling wasn’t there. And that’s the abject lesson: going to start a movie without a script, it’s just—
FEINBERG Never a good idea.
CRAIG Not a good idea.
FEINBERG Between the second and third Bonds, there was another very successful movie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that you made with David Fincher…
STUDENT I’m wondering what your experience was working with David Fincher, because I understand that he is very demanding and asks for a lot of takes, and with Rooney Mara too?
CRAIG Well, that was Rooney’s big break. She is a very, very special actor, and I had a great time because I was very happy for it to be Rooney’s movie, and it was Rooney’s movie, and to play that part and to be part of it was just a real privilege. And to get the chance to work with David. I got on with him. I think there was one day where we did 25 takes. I mean, he’s got this reputation for going and going and going and going, but we never did — we did one day. And I did say to him, “You just don’t know what to do, do you?” And he was like, “No.”
FEINBERG The year after that was Skyfall, your third Bond film, four years after the second Bond, and the first of the two directed by your old pal from Road to Perdition, Sam Mendes. This went on to become the first Bond film to make more than a billion dollars at the box office and the highest grossing film ever in the UK to that point.
CRAIG It’s such a showbiz story. I was at Hugh Jackman’s Christmas party, so drunk, and it was towards the end of the evening. Sam, I think he was doing a play in town, it was in New York, and arrived late. And I was like, “Oh, Sam, so nice to see you,” and sat down and chatted with him — and drunk, offered him the job. I then phoned Barbara the following day and went, “I think I might have offered Sam Mendes the next movie.” And she actually just went, “Will he do it?”
FEINBERG It worked out.
CRAIG It worked out, yeah.
FEINBERG Now, the other thing that you were doing between these films was theater in New York: A Steady Rain in 2009 and Betrayal in 2013 on Broadway, Othello in 2016 off-Broadway, and Macbeth in 2022 on Broadway. Was that—
CRAIG Exhausting? Yes.
FEINBERG You’d “made it” as an actor, and yet you still we’re going back to the theater. Why?
CRAIG I have these huge strange masochistic tendencies — talk to my therapist. No, because live theater is just — there’s nothing like it. I’ve been privileged to stand backstage at some really big music concerts sometimes, and you get that thing off the audience. I mean, even tonight, having an audience in front of you. So it’s electrifying to get up there, remember the lines, get them out, move the audience and get a reaction. I was talking about it with a couple of actors this morning during an interview, and they said, “What was that first moment you did it?” And I fired it back at them and wanted to know what their first moment was, when you got that drug. It’s often a school play. I love school plays. God, I love school plays — going to a school play and the level of hysteria and excitement that’s going on. There’s nothing else like it. And I’ve got kids, so I’ve spent a lot of time doing that. And I’ve got the bug.
STUDENT Do you prepare differently for a stage role than a screen role?
CRAIG I suppose the simple answer is yes. The mechanics are the same, it’s the same kind of thing, you’re looking for truth and you’re looking to all of those things that are obvious. But I did Othello a couple of years ago, Iago, which is bigger than a Hamlet. I often get asked, “How do you learn the lines?” And it’s like, “Well, that’s the pony trick. That’s the gag.” When you go and see live theater, it’s part of the thrill of it, “Are they going to forget their lines? Is this going to go wrong?” You’ve got to do that. It’s what else you put on top of it. And that’s what you do in the rehearsal period. Hopefully you get more than four weeks and you have enough time to work it and work it and work it until you’ve got it. And then the real work begins when you stand it on its feet and you get it in front of an audience. So that is very different, obviously, because in film you might get one or two takes. Or with David Fincher, maybe 35, if you’re really lucky.
STUDENT Do you believe that your work in theater has impacted your work in films? And vice-versa?
CRAIG I would say that my love of collaboration started in theater. That’s what I love on a movie set, when you get a bunch of creatives and start creating something, that’s the magic. And when I joined the National Youth Theatre it was summer courses and you’d devise shows and you’d do this, and it was really my first taste of theater. Every year it was in the summer and certain West End theaters were dark because the summer months were never very productive — people tended to stay away — so we would be in professional, semi-West End theaters with professional stagehands and technicians and everything. We got to work professionally. From the age of 16, I was working semi-professionally. And you have to learn discipline. You’ve got to be there on time, all of these things that seem so obvious. But I got the chance to learn while doing the job, which was invaluable to me. So yes, they paid into each other, for sure.
FEINBERG Your fourth Bond, Spectre, came out in 2015. You shot most of it with a broken leg?
CRAIG Yeah.
FEINBERG After it was done, perhaps not coincidentally, having just established that you shot it with a broken leg, you told Time Out London that you would “rather slash my wrists” than play Bond again—
CRAIG You didn’t have to bring that up, did you? But you did. [laughs]
FEINBERG —and you then went back and played Bond another time, so—
CRAIG Well, I’m an actor, I can change my mind! [laughs] Come on, I’m not a politician. We can all change our mind and it’s very important we do.
FEINBERG Well, as long as you say that, could you change your mind that your fifth was your last?
CRAIG He’s dead! How many times do I have to blow him up? He’s in teeny-weeny little pieces.
FEINBERG This is the movies. There’s magic!
CRAIG Oh, God, no. He’s full of a virus that would kill his family, so there’s no way he can come back. I did my best. Jesus. It’s like, “Put that in, put that in, so there’s no way can he come back.”
FEINBERG Now we should just note that for your fifth Bond movie, No Time to Die, you were more involved with the writing of that than any other, with the possible exception of Quantum of Solace?
CRAIG Yes, but this time I had writers.
FEINBERG And you knew going into it that it was going to be your last?
CRAIG So there’s a story, which is true: Casino Royale came out and it was a success. People started telling me it did great at “the weekend box office,” and I was like, “Is that good?” I had no idea. But it was a success. So we’re in Berlin, I’m in the back of a car with Barbara Broccoli, and I said to her, “How many of these have I got to do?” Because I genuinely didn’t know; I never take much notice of these things. I’m terrible. And she said, “Four” or something. I can’t remember what she said. But I went, “Can I kill him off at the end?” And she just paused and went, “Yeah.” So she kept her word. I had to do five, but…
FEINBERG In-between four and five, there were two others, Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky in 2017, and the first Knives Out in 2019…
STUDENT With characters like Joe Bang in Logan Lucky, Benoit Blanc in the Knives Out franchise and William Lee in Queer, how do you develop accents and voices for your characters?
CRAIG I have a great accent coach, Daniel Diego Pardo, who I’ve been working with for a number of years, who I just get together with as soon as I possibly can, and we start listening to real people and start trying to nail it down. When Rian [Johnson] sent me Knives Out and it said, “Benoit Blanc, with a lilting Southern accent,” I went, “Lilting?” And he went, “Yeah, lilting.” I was like, “Okay.” And then I said, “I’m going to go for this.” And he said, “Yeah, you’ve got to go for this.” So I found voices. There’s a little bit of Tennessee Williams in there. I’m trying to get it into my body so that I don’t have to think about it when I’m doing it. For the first Knives Out, I must’ve driven everybody crazy, but I just spoke like that all the time. Every comment was, [in his Benoit Blanc accent] “Well, what are we having for lunch?” It was like, “Shut up.” But I had to do that, otherwise it wouldn’t have kept on going. It got easier to maintain a bit afterwards. And then with this one? There’s lots of footage of William Burroughs — he did interviews, he was on stages like this talking about literature, and he spoke in this very low voice, which is really interesting to me considering who he was and what he was. I felt that that was clearly a carapace of some form of masculinity that he was putting out there, and I find that fascinating. I find that fascinating, the masculinity in Bond, what that means — so much of that just seems so artificial to me, and is, I think, artificial. With Burroughs, it’s getting into who that was. This character is so complicated and so many things, but I can always be that Burroughs. I can be all of those people. And finding the accent is the key into that.
STUDENT When you’re preparing for a movie where you play a character that you’ve already played before, like James Bond or Benoit Blanc, do you prepare differently than you did the first time?
CRAIG I suppose I’m really conscious of doing a parody of a parody of a parody. Am I parodying myself? Especially with Benoit Blanc, on the second one, I was really nervous because it became something so successful. We went and made this little movie with these wonderful actors, and one of my favorite directors of all time, and we didn’t expect it would kick off like that. And then it became something, and it was like, “Oh, God, I’ve got to repeat that now.” And Bond a bit the same. I suppose you’ve got to do the character justice. You’ve got to present what people want to see. But I am really nervous about repetition. I’m really nervous of falling into the trap of shtick. Nothing wrong with shtick, actually, don’t get me wrong. I wish I had some. But I don’t want it to be that. I want it to be fresh, real, all of those things.
FEINBERG Queer is not just adapted from a Burroughs novella, but it’s semi-autobiographical — in fact, Burroughs wrote it under the pen name “William Lee,” and I think it took years for him to actually put it out into the world, right?
CRAIG In the foreword of the book, he talks about this terrible thing happened to him where he was very, very high with his wife, and they were playing William Tell [Russian roulette], and she put a glass on her head and he shot and killed her. He writes in the book that it was that tragedy that propelled him to write, and Queer was the first book that he wrote, but it wasn’t published until ’85. Jason [Schwartzman]’s part in the movie is based on [Allen] Ginsberg. He was great friends with [Jack] Kerouac. And they all wanted him to write. They all knew he was a great writer, and they tried to encourage him to write, but he, for whatever reason, didn’t — until this great tragedy.
FEINBERG We talked about the fact that you made this excellent movie, Love Is the Devil, all those years ago, like 26 years ago—
CRAIG Oh, thanks. I thought I was a guest here! [laughs] It may be more than that.
FEINBERG A fan of that was Luca Guadagnino.
CRAIG Yep.
FEINBERG He made that known to you back then, long before he went on to make all these great films like I Am Love, Call Me by Your Name and Challengers. He remembers that. Do you?
CRAIG I do. It was when I was in Rome seeing a friend who was working there, and I got invited to this really chi-chi party full of Italian actors in an apartment that looked right over the Colosseum. It was just a fabulous location. And Luca introduced himself to me, and we sat and chatted, and I think talked about working together. And I was like, “Yeah.”
FEINBERG The fact that the collaboration eventually happened all these years later — you guys happen to share an agent?
CRAIG We do. Yes. It does help, yes, when your agent’s [CAA CEO and co-chair] Bryan Lourd.
STUDENT In reading the script of Queer, was there a particular scene that stood out to you and helped you to understand the character and want to play him?
CRAIG I don’t know if there was a particular scene. Justin [Kuritzkes]’s adaptation of the book, which is an unfinished novella really, is very, very close to the book — less so now because of editing and shortening and all of those things that happen when you make a movie. What wasn’t in the book is the Ayahuasca and the trip, and I knew, when I spoke to Luca, how important that was. Because we have two characters in this movie. This isn’t a story of unrequited love; it’s a story of unsynchronized love. These two characters love each other and in very, very, very different ways. And in the book, you never really get to see that or feel it. And Luca, brilliantly, I think, said, “I want to see the Ayahuasca trip. I want to see this trip because that’s the moment when they actually get the chance to come together.” It’s actually a whole dance sequence that Drew [Starkey] and I did. We rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed. It’s edited down, but the idea was that we start bleeding into each other and coming, and it’s the touch and the hugging, and the whole thing in the moment. And then, of course, the following day we can’t — he can’t — and that’s the tragedy. That isn’t in the book. And I suppose that was the moment — when I sat down with Luca and said, “This is a love story,” and he was like, “Yes, that’s what we’re doing.”
STUDENT What did it feel like returning to such a vulnerable part like this after so many years of embodying strong, hyper-masculine archetype as Bond?
CRAIG I’ve always found that very fascinating. I mean Burroughs was very masculine — he shot guns and smoked weed, all these very masculine things. And that I find, again, fascinating. And hopefully the movie conveys a little bit of that — he walks around with a gun on his hip and sort of cowboys around town, but is a queer man in the 1950s and can’t live in the States because it’s illegal, and because he’s also a drug addict and it’s illegal, so he’s in Mexico City looking for something with a whole bunch of other men who were also there looking for something because they can’t live their lives. A lot of whom were married, a lot of whom lived very straight lives. And what masculinity means? I mean, I don’t know, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to figure that out. But it does fascinate me, what we perceive as masculinity and what isn’t masculinity.
STUDENT How did you and your collaborators work to avoid falling into stereotypes of queer characters?
CRAIG Luck? I don’t know. No, it is a really good question. I was very, very sensitive to it. I spoke to a number of my friends about it and was worried about getting it wrong. That’s all I cared about, was getting it wrong. I did all the work I could beforehand. And then you get to the set and you bring something. And we had a great, great director — one of the great directors — in charge, and he was guiding us. And not to put it down, but I was less interested in his sexual orientation; it’s his emotional life that I wanted to portray. I wasn’t trying to portray his sexual orientation. I was trying to portray his emotional life. That, as an actor, I think I can understand. So hopefully that comes across.
STUDENT Some people would argue that because you and Drew Starkey are yourselves not gay or queer, you shouldn’t be playing these roles. But others would say that actors should play whatever because it’s acting. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on that debate.
CRAIG It’s what I just said, I think. If I didn’t think I could tackle the part emotionally, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near it. People ask about the sex scenes in the movie, and I keep saying to them, again, the least interesting thing for me in those scenes is the sex. We’re grownups, people have sex, they do it all the time, right now, somewhere, and possibly in this building! [laughs] That’s a given. But what’s interesting in the scenes is the fact is that these two human beings who are trying to make contact with each other. That’s the only thing that matters. And portraying sex in movies? It’s a minefield. I’ve been in some bad sex scenes. It can go very wrong. And thankfully I’m working with Drew, who’s a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant young actor. What he does in this movie — I’m sure you’ve noticed it, anybody who acts will know — is incredible, because he has very little to say, and he has to fill an emotional life, and he has to be really present all the time, all of which he does with great skill. We laughed a lot. We were also doing this dance sequence where we had to roll around on the floor together. Dancing always breaks the ice. And all we can do is try and do it with as much sensitivity. I hear the argument, I hear it loud and clear, and I’m not opposed to that argument. I just thought, “This is in my wheelhouse. I can do this.”
STUDENT What impact do you hope Queer will have on audiences and what conversations do you hope it will spark?
CRAIG That’s a nice question. I hope that as many people can see this movie as possible, because that’s the way I want my movies to be seen. Of course, I want a conversation around it. I was talking with Luca this morning with somebody, doing an interview, and they asked, “What are the politics of this movie?” And Luca was like, “All art is political, it’s all a political statement of some sort. It should be at least.” And this movie is in that bracket. What that is? It’s kind of up to the audience. I’ve always felt that about all the movies I do, because that’s the beauty of it. I don’t want to slam my opinions down people’s throats. That’s not my job. I want to present something as best as I can. What’s on show, I think, in the film, and what Luca is brilliant at doing in all his movies, is showing the human condition. That’s the kind of movies I like to go and see. So hopefully other people will want to go and see it as well.
FEINBERG With our last minute, just sort of a rapid-fire potpourri—
CRAIG Oh, my favorite.
STUDENT Which actor has influenced you most in your journey as an actor?
CRAIG All of them. I mean, really, there’s no one actor that I’ve really tagged onto. Actors give terrible performances in movies sometimes — hands up. [laughs] And when they get it right, it’s magic. And so the actors I worked with on this, Drew, Jason, all of them.
STUDENT Who is your favorite Bond not named Daniel Craig? And what’s the first name that comes to mind for who you think would be the next great James Bond?
CRAIG Sean Connery, and I don’t give a shit.
STUDENT You’ve worked with so many brilliant directors in your career. What common qualities do all or at least most great directors share?
CRAIG Staying out of my business? No, that’s not the answer. [laughs] Being collaborative, wanting to include, but knowing what they’re doing. And all directors, I would say, at some point during filming, don’t know what they’re doing — so fucking pretend! Because you’ve got to lead, you’ve got to be in charge.
FEINBERG A quick follow-up: Do you have any interest in directing?
CRAIG None whatsoever. No, I go home at night and my phone doesn’t ring, or at least I can turn my phone off. If you’re a director, that phone’s ringing until 3:00 in the morning. Forget it.
STUDENT Were there any things that you sacrificed early in your career that you wish you had prioritized more?
CRAIG Yeah, plenty.
STUDENT In what ways do you think your life and career would be different today if you had not accepted the role of Bond?
CRAIG I hope I would just still be working and doing my thing. I’d done Road to Perdition, I’d done Munich, I was working with some wonderful directors, and I’d made it, as far as I was concerned. Bond was just suddenly this sort of rocket that happened. So I don’t know, regretting the fact that I wasn’t doing Bond probably — “Why did I turn that down?” [laughs]
STUDENT As college students, we’re often asked where we see ourselves in 10 to 15 years. Where do you see yourself in 10 to 15 years?
CRAIG Lying down. I don’t know. This is, as they say, my final act; I’ve got to figure it out. [The crowd mournfully “aws.”] It’s not sad. It’s great. It’s fine. You’ve got to come to terms with it, that’s all it is.
FEINBERG Well, on behalf of everyone here, we want to really thank you—
CRAIG Oh, on that note!
FEINBERG —for all the great work, and for being here. We so appreciate it.