For many, Daniel Craig arrived fully formed in a tuxedo, brooding in the shadows of Casino Royale like a beautifully damaged weapon. But Craig’s magnetism—angular, haunted, quietly queer-coded long before Queer (2024)—has been developing since the 1980s, where he honed his edges in British theater and a string of unsung film performances. His appeal has always been split between severity and softness, the charisma of someone who never quite seems comfortable in the spotlight but is electrifying in its glare. Before he became Bond, Craig played dreamers, drifters, psychopaths, and romantics—roles that asked for more vulnerability than violence.