Daniel Craig ditches Bond and Benoit Blanc for 'Queer' challenge: 'You go with your gut'

After playing British spy James Bond for five installments of that tough-guy saga, Daniel Craig walked to the end of a metaphorical diving board and plunged headfirst into the role of quirky Southern detective Benoit Blanc in "Knives Out."

But Craig's new role in "Queer" (in theaters Wednesday in New York and Los Angeles, Dec. 13 nationwide) is such a radical departure from Bond, he might as well have traded a pool for perilous Mexican cliff-diving.

Craig acknowledges that his new movie is "not going to please everyone," but he encourages keeping an open mind. "It’s a movie about love, loss, mainly about love, about searching for something. I feel it has a lot to say about how we emotionally live our lives."

As gay writer William Lee, a character that 1950s Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs modeled on himself, Craig thoroughly embodies a tortured soul on the run from U.S. drug charges who finds love in Mexico with young ex-pat Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey).

Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox.

Craig seems to be almost daring Bond fans ? for the proverbial record, his response to a question about the next Bond actor is a curt "Who knows?" ? to completely re-imagine him after seeing "Queer." And he's more than fine with that.

"(My career) is all about what I genuinely want to do," Craig says in a Zoom conversation with Starkey, who joined from a different location. "And I’m making it up as I go along."

Craig concedes that "in the past, I would sometimes do jobs in response to other jobs. 'I’ve done that, so now I should do this.' But you realize that by doing that, you’re chasing your own tail. You have to go with your gut. I don’t have to work all the time anymore, so I want to work with people like (director) Luca (Guadagnino) and Drew, who are creative and nice and are in it for the love of what they do."

Daniel Craig on Drew Starkey: 'You more than held your own'

The chemistry and camaraderie that Craig, 56, and Starkey, 31, formed during pre-production in New York and filming at Rome's famous Cinecittà soundstages is apparent in conversation. Starkey, a star of Netflix's "Outer Banks" series, won plaudits at Venice Film Festival for his riveting turn in "Queer." But when it's suggested he hardly is a big screen veteran, Craig jumps in with a boisterous "Not yet!"

Starkey just smiles shyly. When he's asked what it was like to work with Craig, whose pre-Bond filmography includes compelling performances in movies such as the 2004 British crime thriller "Layer Cake," Starkey looks away for a moment.

"Do I have to talk about him with him here?" he says, laughing. "I was an admirer of Luca's, I loved his films (which include "Call Me By Your Name" and "Challengers"). But I was especially a fan of Daniel's. I was intimidated, sure. But when we met, that eased."

Craig is having none of it. "You more than held your own," he says. "Luca saw 300 actors for that role, but kept coming back to Drew. When I met Drew for the first time, I knew. It had to be him."

Why? "Well, he’s got massive presence, which is God given," says Craig. "But he has to inhabit what he’s doing onscreen all the time in this movie, and that takes enormous confidence."

Craig pauses abruptly. Then, revisiting Starkey's notion that complimenting a fellow actor in their presence is awkward, he laughs and says, "Hey, is he still here?"

How 'Queer' dives into the world of Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs

Craig and Starkey both did research into Burroughs and his escape to Mexico some 70 years ago, a troubled period that includes not only his own sexual questioning but also the shooting death of his wife Joan Vollmer, allegedly by accident. But Craig says he was keen not to overdo it.

"I need a lot of time to prep, whether it's because I’m doing an accent, or I’m just finding a voice," he says. "But then you get to work, and it happens on set. That’s where you want it to happen.

"You have amazing actors with you like Drew and you respond to what they’re doing," he adds. "The idea is to get to set and go, we’re here to play now. Let’s see what will happen."

While Craig's character is a physical mess, his heart is genuinely seeking companionship and finds it in a young man who is questioning his own sexuality. Their intense love scenes were filmed on an elaborate set that afforded both actors a kind of refuge from the real world.

"I love working on sets, there’s a magic about them," Craig says of his time at the studios where Federico Fellini made some of his most legendary movies. "It's more controllable. It feels more like a job, and you arrive and do your job and go home, and I like that stability."

Starkey notes that the "Queer" set lent the atmosphere a surreal, "almost childlike sense, you felt like a kid. Everyone there is in awe of this world that’s being built, and you just dive into it."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Daniel Craig dives emotionally deep in 'Queer' movie after Bond