Daniel Craig sits in the restaurant of the Carlyle Hotel in New York, USA, and talks about how easy it can be to close yourself off to new experiences.

“We get older and perhaps out of fear we want to control the way we are in our lives. And I think that’s kind of the enemy of art,” Craig says. “We must oppose it. Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, but you must try to oppose it.

Craig looks like someone who has gotten rid of a too-tight tuxedo. Part of the tension of his tenure as James Bond was this obvious struggle with the constraints that came with it. Such strains, however, seem to be out of the window.

Since the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival, it has been one of the most hyped performances of the season – for its explicit sex scenes, for its vulnerability, and for its extremely anti-007 character.

“The role, they say, must have been a challenge or ‘You’re so brave to do this,'” Craig said in a recent interview alongside Guadagnino. “I kind of say, ‘Hey, not really.’ This is why I get up in the morning.