Oct 23
Gay Love Scenes with Daniel Craig Made Drew Starkey 'Nervous,' the 'Queer' Star Admits
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Daniel Craig's "Queer" co-star Drew Starkey previously said that he and the former 007 actor had "fun" while shooting sex scenes for the Luca Guadagnino film. But it turns out that there's a little more to the story: The "Outer Banks" star recently disclosed that he was "nervous" sharing the screen with Craig.
"At the New York Film Festival premiere of 'Queer' on Oct. 6, Starkey told reporters he was nervous for 'every' scene in the film," People Magazine recounted.
"All of them, every one," People quoted Starkey saying. "I think we were both nervous. We wanted to tell those stories."
The movie is an adaptation of a novel written by "Naked Lunch" author William S. Burroughs in the early 1950s, though it was not published until 1985. People Mag noted that Craig plays "William Lee, an alter-ego of Burroughs', who develops an infatuation with young Eugene Allerton (Starkey) in a post-World War II Mexico City expatriate community."
"He's such a dream to work with," Starkey said of Craig. "Such an amazing artist and he was the most giving actor I've ever worked with."
"I mean, I couldn't have asked for a better partner," Starkey added. The 30-year-old thesp said that Craig, 56, provided "a good bit of guidance" to his younger screen partner.
The admiration was mutual: People reported that Craig said of Starkey, "I love him to death. He's the best."
In remarks he made earlier this month, Starkey told IndieWire that "Daniel and I worked with an intimacy coordinator, but we were in movement rehearsals for like months before those shoots."
Starkey added that "by the time we got there" with the sex scenes, it was as though "we'd been like a jiu-jitsu class for, like, a couple of months. It was with this amazing, beautiful dance, and choreography."
"We were comfortable," Starkey went on to say; "it was a lot of fun."
It certainly sounds like it: Footage of the film's sex scenes, which Guadagnino hinted would be abundant and "scandalous," has already leaked online, drawing enthusiastic responses.
That footage seems to no longer be available, but actor Andrew Garfield, who is working with Guadagnino on one of the prolific director's upcoming projects, revealed recently that he had screened one of the steamy scenes, which depicted a blowjob between Craig's and Starkey's characters, and found it to be "beautiful."
"Queer" reaches theaters Nov. 27. Watch a clip from the film below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
