Daniel Craig's biggest reservation for not playing James Bond anymore was.....

Daniel Craig is finally sharing his reservations for not returning as James Bond after being a part of the iconic franchise for 15 years. Daniel starred as James Bond, the world’s most famous spy 007, in five films that released in a span of 15 years. While his fans cheered for him to return in the next project (whenever planned), Daniel said that he was done playing James Bond and wants to move beyond the franchise and try other things. 

After so many years of having backed away from the franchise, Daniel Craig revealed that one of the “biggest reservations” about portraying the MI6 secret agent James Bond is the societal construct of masculinity.

This was biggest reason for not continuing as James Bond

Speaking at a recently held Q&A while promoting the limited US theatrical release of Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, he said, “I would say one of my biggest reservations about playing [Bond] would be the construct of masculinity. It was often very laughable, but you can’t mock it and expect it to work. You have to buy into it.”

Daniel Craig played James Bond in films like 2006’s Casino Royale, 2008’s Quantum of Solace, 2012’s Skyfall, 2015’s Spectre and 2021’s No Time to Die. Ever since leaving the franchise, Daniel Craig has gone on to star in different films where he gets to play characters like detective Benoit Blanc in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out universe and the recently released Queer. 

On his recent role in Queer, Daniel Craig said, “I mean, the vulnerability of human beings is always interesting to me,” he continued, connecting the “artificial” concept of masculinity to the William S. Burroughs avatar he plays in Queer. “We’re all vulnerable. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter how tough you are, everybody’s vulnerable. But it’s how boys are brought up, how men are expected to behave, how someone like Burroughs was expected to behave.”

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He added later, “Listen, [Bond] is nearly 20 years of my life. When I took it on I was one person. I’m now a completely different person. I’m not doing this movie in response to that. I’m not that small. But I couldn’t have done this movie when I was doing Bond. It would’ve felt kind of, ‘Why? What are you trying to prove?'”