Daniel Craig has said he wanted to make sex scenes in his latest film Queer “as natural as we possibly could”.
The 56-year-old added that he wanted to make the scenes “touching” and “real” while speaking ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film is an adaptation of a William S Burroughs book about an American expat in Mexico City in 1950, called William Lee (Craig), who becomes obsessed with young student Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey).
Speaking about the film’s intimate scenes in Venice, Craig said: “There’s some choreography in the movie, which is a very important part of the movie.
“Drew and I started rehearsals on that months before we started filming.
“Dancing with someone is a great icebreaker, and so we approached the scenes, you know, as well as I do, there’s nothing intimate about filming a sex scene on a movie set, a room full of people watching you, so it’s like we just wanted to make it as touching and as real, and as natural, as we possibly could.
“He was a wonderful, fantastic, beautiful actor to work with, and we just, we kind of had a laugh, you know, we tried to make it fun.”
Craig went on to reveal that he had wanted to work with Guadagnino, who he described as a “great man”, for “a long time”.
He added: “The reason I did the movie is because of this great man here (Guadagnino).
“I mean, I wanted to work with him for a long time, we met 20 years ago and said maybe we should work together, and we finally did, which is just a wonderful thing.
“I kind of look at this movie, and I think if I wasn’t in the movie, and I saw this movie, I’d want to be in it.
“It’s just, it’s the kind of films I want to see, I want to make, I want to be out there.
“They’re challenging, but are hopefully incredibly accessible, because they’re movies, I mean, they’re movies as I understand them.
“So the challenge of playing Lee was just talking, we just talked, and one of Luca’s incredible talents is he just wants to hear everybody’s opinion.
“And he has a very strong opinion, don’t get me wrong, but he wants to hear everybody’s opinion because it’s really important to hear other people’s voices about what it is and it’s so freeing because you’re not kind of like on track.
“You’re just like, maybe this, maybe this, maybe this, so that I don’t look back at it as a challenge, just as a joy.”
Craig first made his name in 2004 crime film Layer Cake, before landing the role of James Bond for 2006’s Casino Royale, 2008’s Quantum Of Solace, 2012’s Skyfall, 2015’s Spectre and No Time To Die, which was released in 2021.
His other non-Bond performances have included Knives Out, Glass Onion and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
