British actor Daniel Craig, known for his role as James Bond, said Tuesday that he used dancing to “break the ice” before filming gay erotic scenes with his partner in Queera film in the running for the Golden Lion at Venice.
“You know as well as I do that there’s nothing intimate about filming a sex scene. The room is full of people looking at you,” explained the 56-year-old actor, who plays an American who falls in love in post-war Mexico City with a young compatriot, played by Drew Starkey, 30, seen in the series. Outer Banks.
“Drew and I started rehearsals months before filming began. […] and dancing with someone is a great icebreaker,” he explained with a smile.
“We just wanted to create something as touching, authentic and natural as possible,” he said.
Queerdirected by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Call me by your name, Challengers) and filmed in the Roman studios of Cinecittà, is an adaptation of the eponymous book by the American writer William S. Burroughs (1914-1997).
Queer is a “very short” but “emotional” book: “it talks about love, loss, loneliness, desire, it talks about all of that,” said Daniel Craig, who with this role breaks his archetypal image of a womanizer sculpted over the course of his appearances in the James Bond saga.
Best known for his novels that mix drugs, homosexuality and anticipation, Burroughs is associated with the emblematic figures of the Beat Generation, his friends Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
Luca Guadagnino’s film, whose photography recalls the atmosphere of the paintings of the American painter Edward Hopper, is in competition with twenty other films at the Venice festival, whose winners will be announced on Saturday evening.