With all the fuss made about the sex scenes in the new movie Queer, it’s no surprise that an Us Weekly reader reached out to Ask Us with this burning question: “Just how racy is the new movie Queer? Does Daniel Craig take it all off?”
So you’re curious whether the former James Bond flashes his Goldfinger? Us Weekly’s film critic, Mara Reinstein, who saw Queer at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, shared some insight: “Given that the erotic drama is directed by Luca Guadagnino — who was also behind the camera for 2017’s Call Me by Your Name and April’s Challengers — it’s no surprise Queer aims to titillate … and wildly succeeds.”
In the R-rated movie, based on William S. Burroughs‘ 1985 novella, Craig plays William Lee, an American veteran who dodges his drug charges by fleeing to Mexico City in the 1950s. He hangs around cheap bars, does drugs and picks up guys. He becomes infatuated with a handsome young fellow American, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), who shows Lee what he has been missing as the they make their way to South America.
“The graphic sex scenes are not only NSFW, but proper descriptions are unfit to print,” Reinstein says.
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So who takes it all off? It’s singer-songwriter Omar Apollo who opted for full frontal nudity during a sweaty hookup with Craig’s character. However, the leading man does not bare it all for the cameras.
Apollo, 27, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he only told his inner circle about the nude scene. “I told my really good friends. I didn’t really want too many opinions,” he explained. “It was cool. I didn’t think too much about it. I really trusted Luca and the cast and the story. William Burroughs is an amazing writer, so I just trusted everything about it.”
Trust played a big role in the creation of Queer’s sex scenes. Both Starkey, 31, and Craig have said that they had to have faith that Guadagnino would handle the intimate scenes with sensitivity and realism.
“I’ve been in movies with terrible love scenes,” Craig, 56, told Variety earlier this month. “It doesn’t work. You need a director who has a sensitivity, a director who understands — to put it crassly — how to make it real. That’s one’s job on the day: to make it as real as possible.”
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Starkey added that Craig was up for anything. “[Craig] was a great partner to have in that. I think him and I share that same mentality of just not giving a s—,” the Outer Banks star told Variety in September. “And [Guadagnino] was so specific — he wanted us to be as comfortable as possible throughout that process, and we would block off where these intimate scenes would happen and we talked months in advance about what we thought it should be. It was also like a dance. We were trying to figure it out. But those were some of the most fun days I think we all had on set — just Daniel and I laughing.”
As for all the fuss about the film’s sex scenes, Craig doesn’t believe the movie’s most intimate moments are what moviegoers will be discussing after the credits roll.
“We knew that the film had to have that intimacy. It was important that the movie showed it, didn’t shy away from it,” Craig told Jake’s Takes earlier this month. “The physical act of sex is part of all our lives. Everybody does it. We wanted to be sensitive to it; we wanted to make it as real as we possibly could. But I think, at the end of the day, I don’t think it’s the most interesting part of the movie. I think it’s just a cog in the wheel of the movie and the emotional journeys of these characters is what hits.”
Queer will be released in select theaters on Wednesday, November 27.
