Daniel Craig Is Brilliant in ‘Queer,’ but the Stakes Were Higher for His Co-Star

Daniel Craig has garnered praise for his mesmerizing performance as William Lee in Luca Guadagnino‘s Queer, most recently earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. However, his co-star Drew Starkey shines too in a totally different way in this adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel of the same name. The character of Eugene Allerton is a major departure from Starkey’s recurring role as Rafe Cameron in Outer Banks and film appearances in Love, Simon and The Hate U Give, and Starkey’s performance shows impressive restraint and emotional layering.

In ‘Queer,’ Drew Starkey Plays a Human Enigma

In Queer, Starkey took on the challenge of portraying the object of Lee’s desire, someone who we want to understand just as much as Lee does. Ultimately, Queer is a story about communication and its challenges, and Lee and Allerton are opposites in their communication styles. While Lee is overly expressive, speaking with an excess of words, often about nothing or nonsense, he hangs onto every scant word Allerton says. Craig and Starkey honor the novel’s characters in a fascinating on-screen dynamic. A repeated interaction we see in the film is Craig rambling to Starkey, while Starkey listens intently, sometimes with a slight smirk on his face, as if he is entertaining Lee’s anecdotes but finds them tedious.

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Starkey vividly disappears into a character that is simultaneously infuriating and familiar. We all know someone like Allerton — emotionally avoidant, hard to read — and therefore mysterious and alluring. In one scene when the two men are first getting acquainted, Lee’s friend Joe (Jason Schwartzman) is regaling them with stories of being robbed by various lovers. Lee keeps looking over to Allerton to check his reactions, in hopes that they might reveal whether he is queer or not. However, Starkey keeps his face controlled and inscrutable. He smiles pleasantly but offers no personal reaction or commentary. It might seem counterintuitive to act as emotionally walled-off as possible, especially when so much of acting involves conveying emotional truth, but Allerton is just that sort of enigma. Starkey’s subtle expressions and guarded watchfulness anchor his character. It is especially interesting to see Starkey’s emotional restraint in contrast to Craig’s deeply emotional performance. Allerton’s stoic demeanor makes us confused and thus even more drawn to him. We become just like Lee, obsessed with figuring out what is going on in his head.

Starkey’s Performance Reveals Hidden Depths to Allerton

Even as Allerton evades us over and over, Starkey balances out his coldness with moments of sincerity that complicate the character. Though he is pretty consistently terrible at making conversation, the film’s sex scenes are one of the places where Allerton does show tenderness and vulnerability. Right before the characters have sex for the first time, Allerton vomits, not from drunkenness, but for an unexplained reason that could be nerves. In his physicality throughout the film, Starkey is slinking and hunched, as if he is trying not to take up any space. There is a self-consciousness and deeper turmoil evident in his efforts to appear blank.

After Allerton and Lee take ayahuasca, Starkey’s performance shifts as Allerton struggles to keep his defenses up. Not only does he shed a tear while lying next to Lee, but the next morning he listens to Dr. Cotter (Lesley Manville)’s words, “door’s already open; can’t close it now,” with a wide-eyed, fearful expression. In an interview at the New York Film Festival, Starkey said that Allerton “only reveals himself when he’s a counterpart to Lee, and that felt like his truest form and what he was most afraid of.” With very few actual lines, Starkey brings this complicated character to life in a captivating performance. In 2017, Guadagnino took a chance on a largely unknown actor named Timothée Chalamet in what was a major launching point for the actor’s career. Now, with Queer, it seems another movie star has been born.

Queer is now playing in select theaters across the U.S.

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Set in 1940s Mexico City, it follows an American expat named Lee (played by Daniel Craig) who becomes infatuated with a younger man, Eugene Allerton (played by Drew Starkey). The film explores themes of longing, isolation, and obsession.

Release Date

November 27, 2024

Runtime

135 Minutes

Main Genre

Drama