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“Daniel and I jumped into movement rehearsals and choreography with each other — that’s a great way to get to know someone… We just jumped in like, ‘Alright, we’re game.’”
Timothée Chalamet and Josh O’Connor are two examples of actors who’ve had Hollywood breakouts in Luca Guadagnino’s films likeCall Me By Your Name and Challengers. And now, Drew Starkey looks set to join that list with Luca’s next big movie, Queer.
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As you may know, Drew will star alongside Daniel Craig in Luca’s film adaptation of Queer, the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs.
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For context, the story is set in 1940s Mexico City and follows an outcast American expat named Lee, played by Daniel. Lee spends a lot of his time frequenting the city’s gay bars and clubs, which is where he meets a younger man named Allerton, played by Drew, whom he becomes infatuated with.
Following months of anticipation, the historical romance drama will finally premiere at the Venice Film Festival later today. And ahead of the festivities, 30-year-old Drew spoke with Variety about his biggest role to date, and what it was like to work with Daniel on such an intimate project.
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Describing the former James Bond actor as an “incredibly kind, goofy,” and “beautiful” person, Drew recalled his first interactions with Daniel, admitting he — like many others on set — was “starstruck” when he entered the room.
Fortunately, any nerves about working with the Casino Royale star evaporated as they “quickly” got to work on the film — which, as you may have guessed, involves a number of sex scenes between their two characters.
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“Daniel and I jumped into movement rehearsals and choreography with each other — that’s a great way to get to know someone,” Drew said, recalling there was a “natural progression” to their dynamic. “It felt cohesive and natural. Nothing felt forced. We just jumped in like, ‘Alright, we’re game.’”
When asked specifically about shooting the intimate scenes, Drew quickly praised Daniel, who he said helped keep things light on set.
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“You treat it like you would any other thing,” he said. “Obviously, you’re more precious with it and you communicate more on the day about people’s comfort levels. But Daniel and I were just game for anything. We just were like, ‘Let’s go for it, let’s have fun.’”
Calling Daniel a “great partner,” he added: “I think him and I share that same mentality of just not giving a shit.”
Drew also shone a light on Luca, who — no stranger to directing intimate scenes in his movies — fostered a safe and relaxed environment on set.
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“Luca was so specific,” Drew recalled. “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,” he went on. “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.”
Notably, Daniel echoed this sentiment during a press conference in Venice today, where he said that he and Drew did their best to make the sex scenes “fun” to shoot.
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“You know as well as I do, there’s nothing intimate about filming a sex scene on a movie set,” he said. “We just wanted to make it as touching and as real and as natural as we possibly could.”
Daniel continued: “Drew is a wonderful, fantastic, beautiful actor to work with and we kind of had a laugh. We tried to make it fun.”
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