REVEALED: DANIEL’S SURPRISING SECRET

I can talk to women there and not get into fights, he reveals

HE has portrayed James Bond as a softer, more vulnerable character – and appeared at the recent premiere of his 007 swansong in a flamboyant pink velvet dinner jacket.

So it may not come as a huge surprise that Daniel Craig has revealed he prefers gay bars to the ‘aggressive’ atmosphere he encounters on nights out in many straight venues.

Craig, who is ending his five-film stint as Bond with No Time To Die, said he felt far more relaxed in the ‘chilled’ bars – and it had given him a chance when he was single to talk to women.

In an interview with Hollywood podcaster and businessman Bruce Bozzi, he said: ‘I’ve been going to gay bars for as long as I can remember and one of the reasons is I don’t get into fights in gay bars that often.’ The actor, 53, said he got ‘sick of’ the ‘aggressive d***swinging in hetero bars’. He added: ‘It was like I just don’t want to end up being in a punchup. And I did, that would happen quite a lot.’

He said gay bars were a good place to go because ‘everybody was chilled... and it was a very safe place to be’.

Craig, who has been married to actress Rachel Weisz since 2011, admitted there were other benefits to being a straight man in a gay venue. He said: ‘I could meet girls there because a lot of girls were there for exactly the same reason I was there. There was kind of... there was an ulterior motive.’

Craig, who has known friend-tothe-stars Bozzi for years, recalled a night out they had together in a popular gay bar in Venice Beach, California, in 2010.

He revealed that the evening ended up sparking speculation about his sexuality when he was pictured hugging Bozzi outside the bar. ‘We’re tactile, we love each other. We give each other hugs, it’s OK. We’re two f***ing grown men,’ Craig said.

But he admitted he ‘got in trouble’ with his publicist. He added: ‘It was one of those situations – and the irony is, you know, we kind of got caught, I suppose, which was kind of weird because we were doing nothing f***ing wrong.’

Early in his career Craig, who was honoured with a star on the Hollywood walk of Fame last week, appeared in Angels In America, an award-winning play examining Aids and homosexuality in the US in the 1980s.

Craig spoke recently about kissing his No Time To Die co-star Rami Malek, who plays the arch villain Safin, at the end of every scene they had together. ‘It just breaks the ice,’ he added. ‘I’m a very friendly guy!’ The film has already taken more than £50million at the UK box office.