“There’s a room full of people watching you”: Daniel Craig’s Secret to Nailing S*x Scenes in Gay Romance Film ‘Queer’ Sound Weird at First But Make a Lot of Sense
- Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey began a strategy months before filming Queer to build chemistry and make the intimate scenes feel natural.
- Queer explores themes of self-discovery, loneliness, and isolation, requiring Craig and Starkey to display broad emotional depth and sexual tension.
- Director Luca Guadagnino praised Daniel Craig as one of the greatest actors and emphasized the uniqueness of Queer
Following his high-adrenaline stint of more than a decade as the famed James Bond, Daniel Craig took to new frontiers. Not long after No Time to Die, he reprised his role of Detective Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and almost entered the MCU with a deleted casting as Balder the Brave in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Now, 2024’s Venice Film Festival just played host to arguably the actor’s most varied project, Queer.
Screened recently to resounding applause, the Luca Guadagnino film has him star as Bill Lee. Acting opposite Drew Starkey as Eugene Allerton, the story will have the duo explore homoerotic love along with depictions of raw emotions. Thus, as to how the 56-year-old perfected intense intimate scenes in a queer flick, there lies a secret, which may sound unconventional, but is pretty logical.
Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey began preparations for Queer months before shoot
An actor of the stature of Daniel Craig is bound to have some tricks up his sleeve to deliver the absolute best. Based on a novella of the same name by William S. Burroughs, it was no secret that Queer would feature graphic scenes of intimacy. To leave no stone unturned, the Spectre star turned to ‘dancing’ with Drew Starkey, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
Speaking at a press conference in Italy, Craig highlighted how he took to practicing choreographed sequences with his co-star months before actual filming began.
Dancing with someone is a great icebreaker. We all know there’s nothing intimate about filming a s*x scene on a movie set — there’s a room full of people watching you — so we just wanted to make it as touching, real and natural as we possibly could.
Labeled as a passionate exploration of self-discovery while coping with loneliness and isolation, Queer will see both Craig and Starkey display broad emotional depth and s*xual tension.
The necessity of the plot demanded true-to-life emotions from the duo while acting, hence their trying of combined choreography to learn each other, which the latter star believed “freed us up and freed our bodies”.
When you’re rolling around on the floor with someone, the second day of knowing each other, it’s a good way to get to know someone.
In addition to the above lines, Drew Starkey also stated that “months of this experimenting” allowed him to develop a close rapport with Daniel Craig and, hence, deliver solid performances for Queer.
Luca Guadagnino dismisses queer James Bond while heaping praise on Daniel Craig
The reports also detailed a question posed to the panel of Luca Guadagnino, Daniel Craig, and Drew Starkey on thoughts regarding a queer James Bond. Moreover, the query also touched upon the Bond actor’s reason to get into a polar opposite role with Queer.
However, the director apprehended the same and dismissed it by saying,
There is no way around the fact that nobody would ever know James Bond’s desires — period.
Continuing further, the Challengers director also mentioned Craig as “one of the greatest actors” as well as his long-standing wish to work with him since their first meeting more than two decades ago. Furthermore, on his part, the latter opened up on how Queer was the sort of movie that he would want to see, make, and be a part of.
Queer will release at a later date in theaters following its acquisition by A24 in Venice.
