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.
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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 I became 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.
00:32What was it like working with him on this and how did you feel his passion for this project and this story?
00:37I personally just wanted to work with him so much and to get the chance to work on this particular project with him, which is clearly personal to him in very many ways.
00:47This 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 why you become, why I 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 and so you want to carry that responsibility over and live up to that.
01:09But of course you show up and once you start working, you know, Luca is precious with it, but it has such a freedom in the way he wants it to be told.
01:17He gives it over to his actors, he gives it over to his departments and that's such a rewarding way to work.
01:23He told me, I think he was 17 when he read the book. So, you know, I'm sure he's been kind of developing things in his brain for such a long time.
01:31And it felt, you know, I was a huge fan. I still, I don't know why I said was, I am a huge fan of Luca and it was just incredible that he even thought of me or, you know, I was presented to do the part.
01:44So, yeah, I mean, I was, I instantly said yes. I didn't even have any thoughts. I was just like, yes, of course, anything you want.
01:51Craig 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. What do you call it?
02:07The big dance number at the end.
02:08The big dance number at the end, yeah. So we had to get together very quickly and sort of, you know, a good dance is a way of breaking the ice. It's like always will.
02:16I read that months of choreography rehearsals went into that Ayahuasca dance scene. What were those rehearsals like? And then what was it like actually filming that scene?
02:25It was hard.
02:26Very hard.
02:27To rehearse.
02:28Flexible.
02:29And not very, not very unflexible human beings.
02:31Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:32But 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 weren't 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 of the movie.
02:49I think that's what we were, 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 Paul and Sol, who are our choreographers.
02:59Yeah, I mean, we shot it one night in the back lot of Chinochita 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 elbows.
03:14Queer is now playing in select theaters.
03:16For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.