Daniel Craig Wants Everyone To Ignore The Biggest Controversy About His Character
Daniel Craig wants people to not "get too hung up" on the fact that Benoit Blanc is gay.
In the Knives Out movies, Daniel Craig plays Benoit Blanc, an investigator and detective who just happens to be gay. Movieweb reports that the actor thinks that’s about all the attention his character’s sexuality should get. Some reviews of the recent sequel Glass Onion seem to have revolved around the sleuth’s romantic orientation, and Daniel Craig rebuts that no one should get too “hung up” on it.
“The less of a song and dance we make about that, the better, really, for me, because it just made sense,” Daniel Craig explained in an interview. “And also, as I said at the [London Film Festival], who wouldn’t want to live with the human being 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.”
A scene in the new movie, which was released in theaters for a limited run over Thanksgiving weekend, seems to confirm that Benoit Blanc resides with another man who is his domestic partner. Daniel Craig’s character then delves into solving the murder mystery he was invited to Greece to unravel. The actor says there’s no reason to make a big deal of the fact because it’s as innocuous as knowing if he has kids.
While gay men come in all shapes, sizes, tastes, and demeanors, it just seems natural that Benoit Blanc would be gay. Knives Out writer-director Rian Johnson confirmed the Daniel Craig character’s orientation at the London Film Festival with an enthusiastic “yes.” However, it is an inconsequential fact, a detail about the character, rather than the center of the story or Benoit Blanc’s life.
This makes Benoit Blanc more than just a token LGBTQ character. It adds layers to the detective that makes him more human to audiences by making him more real and relatable. His orientation is just another detail about him alongside his fashion sense or his drive to solve mysteries.
In Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, tech billionaire Miles Bron invites a group of his friends to his private Greek island for a weekend of murder mystery fun, until someone decides to stop playing at murder and commit it for real. Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is once again summoned to figure out who the culprit is among a menagerie of the powerful and privileged. The action takes place in the home of the tech guru, which is called the Glass Onion and named after the establishment the group frequented before they all became wealthy.
Starring Daniel Craig, the movie also stars Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kate Judon, Dave Bautista, and Jessica Henwick. Rian Johnson has made it clear that Glass Onion is not a sequel to Knives Out but more like a separate case file for the starring character. Johnson’s character bears a lot of resemblance to Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, who provided some of the inspiration for the writer/director’s popular series.
Netflix paid almost $500 million for distribution rights to Glass Onion following the success of its investment in Knives Out. After its very limited theatrical release, the Daniel Craig film will move permanently to Netflix. Rian Johnson has already confirmed that there will be another movie about the sleuth.
The movie has received critical acclaim, with a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans who don’t catch it during Thanksgiving weekend will have to wait until December 23, 2022, to see Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc on Netflix.
