Queer star Drew Starkey says American audiences are ‘uptight’ about sex scenes

Drew Starkey is starring in Luca Guadagnino’s new film Queer opposite Daniel Craig, which features a number of queer sex scenes.

And while the scenes might be shocking to some viewers, Starkey says they’re important to “better understand ourselves”.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Starkey said: “I think as American audiences, we can be very uptight about that stuff, sex scenes, whatever, which is strange.”

“It feels a little prudish to be like ‘ooh if that’s in a movie that taboo’ but if it’s on our phones, it’s fine. [I’m glad] sexuality is coming back to the theaters because I think it’s imperative we integrate sexuality into our stories, it’s the way to better understand ourselves. You learn so much about a person by looking at the way they are intimate with one another,” he continued.

Queer is an adaptation of the William S. Burroughs’ novel of the same name, which sees Daniel Craig playing an American expat and heroin addict who meets Eugene (Starkey), a young student who is sexually ambiguous.

Craig’s character Lee becomes obsessed with Eugene and leads to an explosion of lust and eroticism between the two.

Starkey said that playing Eugene “was very daunting at first” because “it was different than most of the characters” he’s played.

“There’s so much subtlety and delicacy to it. It was a real challenge because no one can read him, no one understands him, least of all (Craig’s character) Lee. So it was my job to try, as best I could, to understand what was going on inside this guy.”

He believes that the Eugene’s confusion about his sexual identity appears to be a reflection of a time “when [gay men] didn’t even have a language to define themselves.

The book was originally written in the 50s and later published in the 80s, a time when there were significant strides in LGBTQ+ rights but also widespread homophobia.

In one scene, the two actors are rolling around on the floor with each other as if they’re wrestling but there’s sexual tension underpinning the act. It was the second day of rehearsals for the film that Starkey and Craig practiced this.

Starkey said: “We jumped into it, just grabbing and throwing our bodies on top of one another, rolling around, getting intermingled. Rolling around on the floor with someone, the second day you met, is a pretty good way to get to know them.”

“Everything after that was very easy,” he added.

Starkey previously starred in Love, Simon, another film centred on a queer relationship, as well as The Hate U Give with Amandla Stenberg.

He also had a main role in Outer Banks as Rafe Cameron. Queer is the first time Starkey has played an openly-gay character.