Daniel Craig Not 'Hung Up' about his Gay 'Knives Out' Role

Daniel Craig, star of one of the year's buzziest movies, is casual about the fact that he's playing gay in the "Knives Out" sequel. "It's nice, it's fun," Craig told Deadline of the new film's breezy inclusion of the fact that his character, detective Benoit Blanc, is not only gay but also lives with his life partner (who is reportedly played a by a major star, whose identity we won't spoil here).

The former 007 actor spoke about his character in broad terms, noting that Benoit Blanc is "incredibly curious."

"I think he's kind," Craig added. "He's genuinely interested in human stories, in people, and what they've got to say. It's how he does his job. He may want his suspects to hang themselves, but he does it by being open. You see it in the movie, he says, 'I'm going to loosen them up.'"

Not that Craig is uptight in the first place about playing gay characters.

"The less of a song and dance we make about that, the better, really, for me, because it just made sense," Craig told the entertainment news outlet. "And also, as I said at the [London Film Festival, where 'Glass Onion' premiered], who wouldn't want to live with the human being that he happens to live with? It's nice, it's fun. And why shouldn't it be? I don't want people to get politically hung up on anything."

Audiences may have forgotten that Craig has already played gay – and not just in the thrilling scene in "Skyfall" in which James Bond derails Javier Bardem's bad guy, Silva, who's trying to sexually humiliate Bond by getting him aroused. In one of the most memorable lines in the entire franchise, Bond challenges Silva's assumptions that he's uncomfortable with the idea of gay sex, suggesting that it's just one more option on 007's erotic menu.

Years before he strapped on James Bond's Walther PPK, Craig played opposite Derek Jacobi in "Love is the Devil," John Maybury's 1998 biopic of openly gay painter Francis Bacon. Craig played Bacon's lover, George Dyer – and gave viewers an unforgettable eyeful during a bathtub scene.

In the comedic mystery sequel, "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," Benoit Blanc ventures from his comfy home (and his same-sex partner) to the privately owned island of a tech billionaire (Edward Norton) who has arranged for a murder/mystery-themed weekend getaway... only for the game to become real, drawing Blanc into a whole new whodunit.

The film premiered theatrically in the U.S. on Nov. 23, and is due to stream on Netflix starting Dec. 23. Watch the trailer below.