Drew Starkey has praised Daniel Craig for putting him at ease filming their sex scenes in Queer.
The Love, Simon actor, 30, and the former Bond star, 56, play a gay couple in Luca Guadagnino's upcoming historical romance drama and Drew has admitted he would have "imploded" if Daniel hadn't "kept it moving", noting how "goofy" and "beautiful" he is as a person.
He told Variety: "I think everyone's starstruck when Daniel walks into the room. But then of course, within five minutes that sheds away and you're like, 'Oh, right.'
"He's an incredibly kind, goofy, beautiful person and very giving actor and a good friend. He's all of it."
On filming the racy scenes, he continued: "But yeah, I mean it was about the work and we just got into it really quickly. He never took anything too seriously. Of course, I was approaching it like, 'Oh my god, this is crazy.' But Daniel always kept it light, and I would have imploded on that set if Daniel wasn't there just to keep it moving. He's the best."
Drew insists the chemistry between them didn't feel "forced" and that "movement rehearsals and choreography" helped them.
He explained: "Well, we certainly had to work at it. I think what's good is there's kind of a natural progression in the process of filming it anyways, in the story.
"It's these two people trying to figure each other out, and we were doing that on set. We had a handful of table reads and Luca was the guiding factor in the way these two operated. He always said, 'There has to be love there,' so we always had that in mind.
"But Daniel and I jumped into movement rehearsals and choreography with each other — that's a great way to get to know someone.
"But it felt cohesive and natural. Nothing felt forced. We just jumped in like, 'Alright, we're game.'"
They spent months ensuring they were "as comfortable as possible" and ended up having a lot of "fun" together.
Drew said: "You treat it like you would any other thing. Obviously, you're more precious with it and you communicate more on the day about people's comfort levels. But Daniel and I were just game for anything.
"We just were like, 'Let's go for it, let's have fun.' So he was a great partner to have in that. I think him and I share that same mentality of just not giving a s***.
"And Luca was so specific — he wanted us to be as comfortable as possible throughout that process, and we would block off where these intimate scenes would happen and we talked months in advance about what we thought it should be.
"It was also like a dance. We were trying to figure it out. But those were some of the most fun days I think we all had on set — just Daniel and I laughing."
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