Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film Queer will see Daniel Craig have “sensual” sex scenes with both Drew Starkey and Omar Apollo.
The 1940’s romantic drama stars the James Bond icon as Lee, a man fleeing a drug bust in New Orleans. While in Mexico City, he becomes infatuated with Allerton (Starkey), a discharged serviceman from the American Navy.
Queer is based on William S. Burrough’s 1985 short novel of the same name, which explores themes such as homosexuality, sex and drug abuse.
Also starring Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville, Henry Zaga, Drew Droege and Ariel Schulman, the film will mark the acting debut of singer-songwriter Apollo.
In a recent conversation for Interview Magazine, Starkey and Apollo reflected on their “really, really intimate” scenes with Craig, with the former saying he had “seen most of them during ADR”.
“It was so funny. Luca was like, ‘Can you do noises?’ I was like, ‘Okay,'” Apollo said of his ADR experience, with Starkey responding: “It’s always exertion and breaths and groans. Just you in a booth alone doing that, you feel like you’re in an insane asylum.”
Apollo revealed that he had consumed “gin and tonics” before his scene with Craig, describing it as a “vibe”: “I had a really cool experience with him. He definitely has this presence to him that is felt from far away.
Daniel Craig in Queer
“I remember asking him, ‘How do you feel when the camera’s on?’ And he said, ‘To be honest, every time the camera’s on me, I’m terrified.’ I thought that was beautiful. You have to be vulnerable. You have to be open to these emotions. It was such an honest answer.”
Apollo, who just celebrated the release of his sophomore album God Said No, tried “the soup diet” ahead of filming his sex scene with Craig, admitting that he didn’t want to ‘look off’. Starkey refuted his concerns, saying he thought the scene was “very sensual”.
In a separate interview with Variety, Starkey was questioned on his “pretty steamy scenes” with Craig, saying they were both “game for anything”.
“We just were like, “Let’s go for it, let’s have fun.” So he was a great partner to have in that. I think him and I share that same mentality of just not giving a shit,” he explained.
Omar Apollo
“And Luca was so specific — he wanted us to be as comfortable as possible throughout that process, and we would block off where these intimate scenes would happen and we talked months in advance about what we thought it should be.
“It was also like a dance. We were trying to figure it out. But those were some of the most fun days I think we all had on set — just Daniel and I laughing.”
Starkey is best known for his supporting performances in films such as Love, Simon (2018), Hellraiser (2022) and The Other Zoey (2023). Since 2020, he has played Rafe in Netflix’s mystery teen drama Outer Banks.
Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer
Queer premieres at the 81st Venice Film Festival (3 September), where it will compete for the coveted Golden Lion. It was recently confirmed that the highly-anticipated film has been picked up for distribution by A24.
In a statement, Guadagnino and Craig described Queer as a “labor of love, and we could not be more excited that our film has found a home,” before hailing the studio as “daring, vital and trailblazing”.
“It is our deep honor to finally bring Burroughs’ legendary novel to life on screen for the first time, and we feel immense gratitude and excitement to be able to present it alongside our treasured collaborators,” they continued. “We could not ask for better partners on this journey.”
As of writing, a worldwide theatrical release for Queer is TBA.
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