How Daniel Craig & Drew Starkey Handled ‘Awkwardness’ of ‘Queer’ Sex Scenes (Exclusive)

Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey are promoting their new movie “Queer,” the Luca Guadagnino adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel.

“Extra’s” Melvin Robert spoke with Daniel and Drew about the movie, which has them playing lovers.

Craig stars as an American expat in 1950s Mexico City who pursues a young, recently discharged U.S. Navy sailor, played by Starkey.

Daniel and Drew talked about the trust they developed and the awkwardness that can come with intimate scenes.

Craig commented, “We just laughed a lot as well. I mean, we had to. I think that was important that we sort of like kept our sense of humor through the whole thing because we’re dealing with, you know, the awkwardness of filming certain scenes is like, it is what it is. They’re awkward to do.”

He continued, “But we just set out to make it as real as we possibly could and keep it emotionally connected so they’re not kind of there for no reason,” Daniel emphasized. “They’re there to show the audience what the next progression in these people’s relationship.”

Sex scenes aside, the two also dished on the dance training they did for one scene that sees them on an ayahuasca trip.

Daniel commented, “It’s a kind of important section with this ayahuasca trip that we do at the end of the movie, which is not in the book. In fact, it’s something that Luca wanted very much to be in the film and also how to portray that on celluloid. How are you gonna show somebody having a trip? It can be bad, let’s be honest. And so we worked together before shooting and while shooting, most of our days off we spent in a studio working on the dance. It just became this, it was another kind of acting, it felt lile. It felt like we weren’t saying dialogue to each other, we were moving with each other… What an experience. I’ve never done anything like it.”

Drew shared his two cents, saying, “It was a different way of expressing ourselves, and I think at least for me, it helped me get a little bit out of my head… I’ve never moved my body like that before. I was in a pretzel in some ways. I was like, ‘What the hell?’ I didn’t know I could do that.”

He added, “Anything you do outside of the work, of course, is supposed to inform your work, but this felt kind of emotionally connected in a way.”

Daniel also opened up about why this is the role he’s been waiting for.

He raved, “How amazing to have done what I’ve been able to do with my career and then at this stage of my career get offered this. It’s a real, yeah, it’s an incredible privilege.”

He said what he loved about the role was “just how complicated the character is, you know, and that complication is shown.” He noted, “You can sometimes have a complicated character, but you don’t see many facets of that. In this movie, I feel like you see kind of just about everything, and that feels to me, I mean, to have that as an acting job is just, that’s why I get out of bed.”

As for the Oscar buzz surrounding the film, Daniel quipped, “I don’t know. How do you process it? It’s all gravy.”

Drew agreed, “I’m gonna use that. It’s all gravy.”