On Tuesday night at the Venice Film Festival, just as Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” was beginning to roll its closing credits and the Sala Grande was still dark and applause had only begun started, star Daniel Craig turned in his seat to give director Luca Guadagnino a tight hug. The gesture would foreshadow what was to come mere minutes later, when the above-the-line talent made sure to have just about every creative who worked on the film who was present at its Venice premiere take a trip down the theater stairs — and take in the rapturous cheers from the audience.
Though it was not a standing ovation that broke records — mostly because by the eighth minute past the credits, even costume designer Jonathan Anderson got his own time in the spotlight — it was one of the more exuberant receptions for a film so far at the festival. Italian teenagers seeking autographs started a “Luca, Luca, Luca” chant, calling the filmmaker Papa of Cinema.
In addition to Guadagnino, Craig, and Anderson, “Queer” cast members Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, and Omar Apollo were all present at the premiere, as well as screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes. While the latter sat next to his partner Celine Song, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker of “Past Lives,” a row back from the rest of the film’s above-the-line talent, Craig’s wife, Oscar winner Rachel Weisz, was seated directly behind him.
Elsewhere in theater were Guadagnino’s “Bones and All” star Taylor Russell, who happens to be a member of one of the festival juries this year, and fellow writer/director Pedro Almodóvar, who just premiered his latest film “The Room Next Door” the previous night. Guadagnino and Craig attempted to guide the Spanish auteur toward the stairs to receive his own moment of applause, but Almodóvar graciously declined.
Probably the most interesting moment of camaraderie was for co-lead Drew Starkey, who had walked into the premiere side-by-side with fellow Apollo. During the standing ovation, the “Outer Banks” actor was guided down the stairs several times by both event staff and Guadagnino himself to plant his feet and embrace his “star is born” moment.
Earlier in the day, at the festival press conference for the film adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ 1953 novel “Junkie” about an older gay expat in midcentury Mexico City who begins pining over a young veteran, Craig and Starkey gave a sense of the bond they had developed through their answers about the film’s steamy sex scenes between the pair.
“You know as far as I do: There’s nothing intimate about filming a sex scene on a movie set. You’re in a room full of people watching you. We just wanted to make it as touching and as real, as natural, as we possibly could. Drew was a wonderful, beautiful, fantastic actor to work with, and we had a laugh. We tried to make it fun,” said Craig.
“We jumped into rehearsals pretty early on, not just the intimate scenes, but throughout the course of the movie, that freed us up, freed our bodies up, and we felt open to trying new things. When you’re rolling around on the floor with someone the second day of knowing each other, that’s a good way to get to know someone,” added Starkey.
Prior to the film’s public screening, “Queer” had already been perceived as a vehicle that could garner Craig his first Oscar nomination. “He is one of the greatest actors. It is a privilege to work with somebody like him,” said Guadagnino of his leading man. “One of the characteristics of the great actors that you love and see onscreen and are affected by, I would say is the generosity of approach, the capacity of being very mortal onscreen, and very few are, and very few iconic legendary actors allow that fragility to be seen, and one of them is Daniel for sure.”
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