Daniel Craig is receiving critical acclaim for his role in Luca Guadagnino's latest film, 'Queer,' an adaptation of the 1985 novel by William S. Burroughs. Craig and his co-star Drew Starkey, as well as Omar Apollo, who appears in the film, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter all about working on the movie. 'Queer' is now playing in select theaters.
00:00You know, you're kind of joining somebody, such a creative force, and just joining in with that kind of, with that journey is why you become, why you become an actor.
00:11Daniel Craig is receiving critical acclaim for his performance in Luca Guadagnino's latest film, Queer, an adaptation of the 1985 novel by William S. Burroughs.
00:20Craig and his co-star Drew Starkey, as well as Omar Apollo, who appears in the film, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter all about working on the movie.
00:27This movie is many years in the making for Luca. He wanted to tell the story for a really long time.
00:33What was it like working with him on this, and how did you feel his passion for this project and this story?
00:38I personally just wanted to work with him so much and to get the chance to work on this particular project with him, which was clearly personal to him in very many ways.
00:46This is such a sort of just a privilege because, you know, you're kind of joining somebody, such a creative force, and just joining in with that kind of, with that journey is, is why he become, why he became an actor.
00:59It was, it was a bit of terrifying at first, just because I knew how important this story was to him.
01:05And so you, you want to carry that responsibility over and, and, and live up to that.
01:09But of course you, you show up and once you start working, you know, Luca is precious with it, but has such a freedom in, in the way he wants it to be told.
01:17He gives it over to his actors.
01:19He gives it over to his departments.
01:20And that's such a rewarding way to work.
01:23He told me that, I think he was 17 when he read the book.
01:25So, you know, I'm sure he's been kind of developing things in his brain for such a long time.
01:32And it felt, you know, I'm, I was a huge fan.
01:34I still, I don't know why I said was, I am a huge fan of Luca.
01:38And it was just incredible that he even thought of me or, you know, was presented, I was presented to do the part.
01:46So, yeah, I mean, I was, I instantly said yes.
01:48I didn't even have any thoughts.
01:50I was just like, yes, of course, anything you want.
01:52Craig and Starkey, who play lovers in the film, also spoke about how they built trust with each other as actors.
01:57We actually started rehearsals for the, there's a dance, a moment of dance, whatever you call it, at a key point in the movie.
02:06What do you call it?
02:07The big dance number.
02:08The big dance number at the end, yeah.
02:09So we had to get together very quickly and sort of, you know, a good dance is a way of breaking the ice.
02:15It's like, it always will.
02:16I read that months of choreography rehearsals went into that ayahuasca dance scene.
02:21What were those rehearsals like?
02:23And then what was it like actually filming that scene?
02:25Hard.
02:26Very hard.
02:26To rehearse.
02:28We're not flexible.
02:29And not very, we're two, not very unflexible human beings.
02:31Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:32But we, we got through that and got to a stage where, yeah, we wanted, the rehearsals were really about getting it into our bodies so that when we did it, we went thinking about it.
02:41And the idea between, a lot of, some of the ideas behind the scene is that we're communicating without speaking, which is one of the lines in the movie.
02:49I think that's what we would, you know, we were kind of having this dialogue with each other through these, you know, these incredible movements that were taught to us by the, by these Paul and Sol who are choreographers.
02:59And, yeah, I mean, we shot it one night in the back lot of Chinichita on a bed of coffee grinds because the ground was too rough.
03:09So they covered it in coffee grinds so that we wouldn't bruise our poor, poor elbows.
03:14Queer is now playing in select theaters.
03:16For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.
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