With Drew Starkey
London, January 2025
Drew Starkey opens up about his role as Eugene in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer (2024), co-starring Daniel Craig. Adapted from William Borough’s novel, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2024 and explores love, identity, and desire in 1940s Mexico City. Starkey discusses bringing Eugene to life, navigating the character’s emotional depth, and working alongside Guadagnino’s recurring creative team, from intimate moments on screen to underwater scenes in Sicily.
After watching Luca Guadagnino’s movie in Venice Film Festival 2024, we met with Drew in London. Below is our conversation.
Filmstills by Yannis Drakoulidis with the courtesy of A24
Set in 1940s Mexico City, Queer follows the encounter of William Lee (Daniel Craig), a drug-addicted American expat who becomes infatuated with Eugene, a younger, former Navy man (Drew Starkey). In the film’s third act, they venture south in search of yagé, a drug rumoured to grant telepathic powers.
The film is bold in its intimate scenes, but its real distinctiveness lies in its screenplay. It portrays a man’s love for another man with rare purity and simplicity. Director Luca Guadagnino describes their journey—filled with passion, drug use, and hardship—as captured with “a complete lack of judgment.”
Notably, costume design was led by Jonathan W. Anderson, creative director of the Spanish brand Loewe and his own label, J.W. Anderson. Every piece authentically reflects the period, perfectly complementing the characters without drawing undue attention. Queer has become one of the year’s standout films, highly praised by critics at Venice.
Burcu Beaufort: Hi Drew, nice to see you in London. How are you liking the city so far?
Drew Starkey: When did I get in? Yesterday? Who knows when I got in?! But I am enjoying it, yes. It’s busy but I love London.
BB: I saw the movie “Queer” in Venice during the premiere. It was amazing. During the press conference, the screenwriter of the movie, Justin Kuritzkes has told us that he wanted to create a love story between Lee (Daniel Craig) and Eugene (Drew Starkey). However, while watching the movie, I wasn’t pretty sure if Eugene really loves Lee. What is your take on it? How do you interpret Eugene’s actions towards Lee?
DS: I think it is incredibly complicated. Love in general is complicated, but people’s ability to communicate love is even more of a problem. Eugene has his intense fear that is stopping him from communicating about his feelings. The things he loves the most, he also detests in a way. It is a feeling that is universal to people. I think we can experience a deep emotion like love but it’d be so shrouded and deep within yourself so you don’t have the ability to actually bring it out and give it to the other person .
I think you see it in fleeting moments between them. Eugene has this very strong pull towards Lee but he cannot explain what it is. Luca Guadagnino said something really beautiful when were in New York. There is a moment where you see it in Eugene’s subconscious when he is sleeping that he reaches out to Lee. There is something within him that is not alive in the waking world that is longing for him and wanting to connect. That’d be the story of unsynchronised love. These two people are probably not in the same plane and same space and time but their souls, in some way, have merged. Like there is a piece of them that is meant for each other. That is heartbreaking. You know, I have experienced that and I think a lot of people have.
BB: It is quite a complex topic to bring it onto the screen but Luca has done it very well so that Eugene’s indecisiveness and confusion in this story was pretty clear. Do you think he was kind of blocking himself or it was rather unconscious of him?
DS: There are certainly walls that Eugene puts up. Hopefully, you can see in the course of the film that he does not allow himself to go further, which is hard to play, because as a person you want to give it back to him (Lee) but Eugene has a lot of emotional restraints. That is tricky.
BB: At a point, he decides to join Lee on the long journey to South America. Why does he do it? To travel and explore the south or he wants to be with Lee? Because he loves him?
DS: I think in that one act, you realize that he does have this desire to be close to Lee in some way. But he is also playing this game of cat and mouse. You know, if he looks at me I’m gonna look away, pretend that I am not interested in him. That is a bit tantalizing, that picks his interest. He decides to join this adventure, because he likes being the subject of Lee’s performance. Lee is kind of performing for a one-man-audience and I think Eugene likes that. It is something that gives him a bit of a joy, makes him feel warm.
BB: After seeing the movie we were all fascinated by the scene where Eugene and Lee become one body, the choreography, the light.. It is so beautiful. Is there any scene in the movie you love most?
DS: I love that scene too. My favorite scenes are the ones that are attached to memories of filming. There is a scene of us swimming past each other, underwater. That was shot on a coast of Sicily. That was like 30 minutes of swimming in this beautiful water of Sicily. That was my favorite day, it was fun.
BB: I also wanted to ask about the collaboration with Luca because he sort of builds his “team”. Like the actors he is working with they are recurring in his other movies as well. Maybe there is another project of yours again with him?
DS: Oh, if he would ask me again, of course, I would do anything. Shooting “Queer” was one of my favourite experiences. So I’ll do anything, until I am on my deathbed.
BB: Crazy, It is also something which he says about his team, like working with Jonathan Anderson. We can see from outside how the movie cast is strongly connected to each other.
DS: Yes, even some of the crew members are most of the time the same people from his other movies. I think he finds people who he can have shorthand with accelerating the creative process. Also he works with people he likes. It makes it easier.