Omar Apollo says Drew Starkey’s performance in “QUEER” is going to make him one of Hollywoods new IT people

Man, I wish Ben Daniels was in the role Craig got. And maybe Théodore Pellerin instead of this bland frat guy. Shame that turd "I got mine" director doesn't support his own.

It’s his “breakout” role.

R1 This wasn’t a big studio made film. The “turd” has to cast a lead who will get investors to invest money to get the film made. Same as that movie Phoenix just dropped out of. That’s how a lot of indie films are made, and they rely on investors. After that a studio usually buys the film to distribute it.

Just attractive enough to have a chance.

He’s ok. Way too skinny and bland.

With a name like Drew Starkey, that boy deserves to be a star!

He's kind of an it now.

Dog! That interview was unreadable!

Omar Apollo looks a bit like John Mayer.

Same height, too. 6 feet 6 inches tall!

I hope that Omar's not a bottom.

Omar is cute but he looked a lot better when he was in the Olympics and concentrated more on his speed skating.

R9 needs his eyes checked

R9 Everyone knows Mayer is a total homo!

GASP

Is Drew Starkey gay, too?

I think he's hot.

This is what you say looks like John Mayer? But we are supposed to take you and your millions of posts seriously?

Starkey on Daniel Craig from the OP's article:

[quote] Working with Daniel, I could have thrown all my years of acting school out the window. He’s so fucking good at every aspect of his craft, just homed in every day. And he’s such a weirdo, dude.

[quote] He’s absolutely fucking incredible in this film. He’s really shattering. Very vulnerable, because as an actor, he could give a shit, dude. He’s the most punk person. He’s game for anything. He’s like, “Yeah, whatever. Let’s do it. Who cares what anyone thinks?”

^^^ That sounds JUST LIKE ME, (but right before I walked out of that gay film).

[quote] I hope that Omar's not a bottom.

Oh, he's definitely a bottom.

Daniel Craig and Starkey.

It’s the Dog and Dude interview.

R1 is right. Ben Daniels would be great casting. Or even Andrew Scott.

I’m not sure what this film will do for this Drew Starkey’s career - I’ve never heard of him before so I guess it’s doing something. It’s a pretty passive role, he’s just the indifferent object of desire. At best, he could be this year’s Charles Melton but even his awards campaign ran out of gas and stalled without an Oscar nomination.

From the looks of him I just think, don’t we already have Jack Lowden…? I mean, what’s this guy’s type? Looks like a very average white guy.

While there does seem to be a lot of interest in this film, at least prior to its world premiere, who is actually going to see a film called Queer? Not a lot of people, I think. But, we’ll see.

We’ll know by Thursday what Gudagnino has done with this material. I was intrigued when I read recently that he was inspired by Powell and Pressburger because when I recently re-read the novel I thought, well, there is a way to do this - and that was pretty much what came to my mind as well. But even the very best version of this film is still going to have very limited appeal. I’m amazed they apparently raised a budget of $50M for it. I can’t imagine they’ll ever make that back. This must be Gudagnino’s blank check.

Elordi is gorgeous

Never saw anybody who looked less like a star.

Flop.

This comment in the interview is "interesting" (asked by Apollo)

"How did you prepare for playing a gay-ass role like this? Did you act more feminine?" FOR FUCK'S SAKE, PEOPLE. We do not need dipshits who still can't figure out who "the wife is" in a gay relationship "advocating" for us!

R21, I've seen all of "Outer Banks" and know Drew from it, but his character's basically a one-note sociopath (and it's still one of those shows with an appeal I do not get – it's a poorly written, utterly ridiculous show about a group of 18-going-on-30 characters (30 being their real age) finding Coronado (!) on their own (!!). That being said: Luca Guadagnino has already proven to have some of the most solid casting instincts of any modern director. I'm sure we all know how much he impacted Timothee Chalamet, but he had the same effect on Josh O'Connor after "Challengers." (O'Connor went from nerd – he did, after all, play Prince Charles on "The Crown" – to massive tennis stud with A LOT of current heat in Hollywood.)

I fully expect to be wowed by Drew's performance, and if it's solid, he could end up on a Harris Dickinson trajectory. (His first indie role was as a closeted Brooklyn teen.)

Well, I’m not sure “the Harris Dickinson trajectory” is enough to sustain two careers. Dickinson’s latest, Babygirl with Nicole Kidman, just premiered and his role is described as pretty one-dimensional with the film over all sounding like the kind of thing that, outside of a festival environment, is a total cringe fest. That said, Dickinson would be better casting in Queer than this Starkey.

Also, Starkey isn’t in the Chalamet role. He’s in the Armie Hammer role - the object of desire - which is something Gudagnino struggles with, confusing the requirements of the story with his own desires.

That maybe true what you say about O’Connor - and I do appreciate your insights - but I didn’t rate Challengers. It’s only achievement was that it ripened into self-parody right before our very eyes.

I'd rather see more Finn Wittrok

Is Omar still hanging out with Pedro Pascal?

This Drew dude is bland and balding. Pass.

R26, I'm assuming you missed that Harris has also been in "Triangle of Sadness" (his best film to date IMO); "The Iron Claw" (co-starring as one of Zac Efron's and Jeremy Allen White's wrestler siblings, and JAW getting into shape for it was what prompted his Calvin Klein campaign); "The King's Man," the third of the Kingsmen movies started by Taron Egerton (and he played the Taron role against Ralph Fiennes); and even the cringey "Notebook" style "Where the Crawdads Sing," though at least he had Daisy Edgar-Jones as his co-star in it.

That's a pretty fucking strong trajectory. (But WTF do you mean by sustaining two careers? His & Kidman's?) Also, you're jumping to an awful lot of conclusions about a film you haven't seen that literally just premiered yesterday: even if Harris is in "the Armie role," it doesn't mean it's one-note. (You also seem to be forgetting that Armie was nominated for numerous acting awards as well, though obviously not an Oscar.) I think we'll have to agree to disagree on Guadagnino's casting abilities, but the main thing "off" about hiring Armie was merely that he wasn't plausible as a 24-year-old. I know he's cancelled & everything, but the guy *can* act (albeit not at a Chalamet level).

But, again, the movie just premiered. How about at least waiting for a *few* critiques of Harris's performance to come in?

R25 What do you mean, finding Coronado? (I never watched it.)

"They got a new 'it' girl, for real."

I love Omar Apollo.

[quote]Is Omar still hanging out with Pedro Pascal?

He's still singing about him.

R29, you’re confused about my post but that’s okay.

[quote] Same height, too. 6 feet 6 inches tall!

John Mayer is nowhere near 6'6"... and Omar is too beautiful for Pedro Pascal.

Dime a dozen.... next.

Too bad they can't talk without calling each other Dog, Dude, and Bro.

I hope the movie is good

He's believable as what I think of as "Hollywood plain", and I think he'd be easy to pretty up a little or dirty down. If he's any good, he might well have a decent career ahead of him.

Drew is gorgeous

Drew is sexy. He’s not too pretty, not too muscular, not too twinky, he’s just right. He’s attractive without trying hard.

Are we supposed to listen to Omar? A 27 year old from Indiana with a high school degree?

R23: Tell me about it.

[quote] Are we supposed to listen to Omar? A 27 year old from Indiana with a high school degree?

That's rich coming from a completely anonymous nobody.

He's cute, in an friendly way. A mix of Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

R43 Why don't you come over for dinner and tell me about it?

Outer Banks is complete crap with shitty color filters but.. But it's a show to put on in the summer when I have chores to do and only lightly watch it for some eye candy.

R44 How do you know I am not an anonymous somebody? Hmmmmmm?

I've never heard of him before but Drew Starkey is very cute. I googled and he's straight unfortunately.

He looks kind of bad (in character) at r2, but this is what he looked and sounded like when he was doing press for a Hellraiser movie last year. His eyes are huge, and you don't always notice that in some of the still pictures.

You guys are missing the headline that Omar Apollo has a sex scene with Daniel Craig.

Can’t tell if Omar is a bottom or top, though. He reads tall, shy bottom. But Pedro Pascal also reads bottom.

Who knows.

Oh this premieres today, press screening is happening now. There should be reviews later today or tomorrow morning then.

Who and who-er?

His eyes are not huge. Filters. And he widens them on purpose sometimes for effect.

First clip of “Queer”

Hey over here! Remember me?

He is booked and busy r56

[quote] You guys are missing the headline that Omar Apollo has a sex scene with Daniel Craig.

That's an odd pairing.

Omar is 6'6" and Daniel Craig is really short.

She-Man's mussy is always booked & busy R57

Clip from the movie

R57 Oy she's on vacay in Kuala Lumpur with her husband.

R60 literally posted at r55

R60 you stupid cunt.

Critics are raving over his performance

He’s my fave on Outer Banks. I like the bad boy types. It’d be great if he is gay. But I imagine with this movie coming out, his manager will be dialing up the straightness. Not saying he’s gay, but they’ll be distancing him from the inevitable queer rumors.

Wait—the movie actually called Queer? I thought that was just a polite way to say it’s another Luca fag film.

He isn’t gay. He’s an actor acting.

I'm a frau frauing.

Daniel Craig looks like a potato.

So sad because he was really hot in Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

His body is still fit, though.

I see no visible ink. It’s a “starter”.

Drew Starkey? Drew Star!

Lmao

Omar Apollo does full frontal nudity for his sex scene

The director, playing with the audience during a sex scene (this excerpt from the above IndieWire review):

[quote] Eugene is a fount of water in a desert, and a beautiful man whom Lee has to have. In hindsight, would Lee have drowned himself so fully in his obsession had he known the heartbreak at stake? They go to bed in two feverishly charged, sensually filmed encounters that are the most explicit gay sex scenes I can remember in any mainstream movie — if “Queer” is that at all.

[quote] That Guadagnino briefly pans out a window during both, only to cut back to the lovers to find them going at it even harder than before, could suggest the filmmaker is trolling critics of the controversially coyer sex scene in “Call Me By Your Name,” which panned to a tree outside the bedroom of an Italian villa as Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer started going at it. But I think that’s just Guadagnino’s playfully teasing style, often abruptly digressive in a film’s most sensual or visceral moments, only to yank us back into the primality of it all.

[Quote]This Drew dude is bland and balding. Pass.

This.

[quote] Drew Starkey? Drew Star!

Drew Nasty!!

If he were gay, he wouldn’t be in a Luca Guadignino film.

Yawn

[Quote]But the last act morphs into a strange, surreal and somewhat experimental odyssey that is bound to lose some viewers.

I wonder what this means?

This is who the person upthread said looks like John Mayer? Are your eyes ok?

Rachel Weisz is so gorgeous. I can’t.

Omar is so thirsty. Gurl, drink some agua

The boys in Venice

[quote]R25 What do you mean, finding Coronado? (I never watched it.)

I meant exactly that: a group of teenagers, and the dad of one of them who faked his own death, discovered the lost city of Coronado at the end of last season. Yes, the one with all the gold. Yes, this is one of the most ludicrous TV show plots ever. (The characters were supposed to be 16 FFS!)

Also, see link. An 11-minute standing ovation. Sounds like Omar was right!

A new leading man.

Is he balding?

You can read some of the reviews here.

Omar looks better after the weight loss. He should lose another 20 lbs and do some exercise.

So now all it takes is dry hump an old git on the big screen and you're the IT boi. WTF!

Drew is losing his hair. Sad.

How many times can Luca Guadagnino make the same film?

What's that supposed to mean, R95?

Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, et. al.

And a smoker - interest lost.

R77 OF COURSE, he does.

R94 When did you lose yours? I mean...shit happens. It's inevitable.

I have never seem Starkey act and have nothing against him, and I wish any actor who takes these roles well

But he is really, really forgettable looking. Maybe that was appropriate for the character. But it’s not a marketable fave.

Starkey isn’t losing his hair, he has always had that far back hairline. Not everyone has the same hairline. wtf.

Paul Mescal also has a very far back hairline since young, but he fortunately looks good with keeping his hair longer and he has curly hair so it’s easy to cover his long forehead.

The Times did not like it and gave it a 2/5 stars

John Mayer lookalike? No. Try a tall John Oates.

Yikes

“gorgeous and yet whoppingly blank student Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey, seemingly catatonic)”

Omar Apollo has brown skin with black nipples. In what world does that give John Mayer? People need their eyes checked badly these days.

Someone upthread mentioned Elordi and that’s actually funny because he was who Luca wanted for the role and they even had a meeting but it didn’t work out for unknown reasons. Drew Starkey was cast later.

R105: Didn't blow well enough?

Drew has a gorgeous body.

GQ is already pushing him to no end.

Oh this was what he wanted Elordi for? Probably a good move by Elordi because he had just done a similar role as the object of gay desire in Saltburn, although that would have been a magnificent looking paring.

Drew Starkey is just - visually at least - a CW actor. Exceedingly generic. The old phrase in Hollywood is “the devil’s candy”… the type of person who can turn a good man bad.

Armie Hammer was close to that in CMBYN (I say close because he just looked too old)

I wonder if this role so have gone to Armie Hammer had Hammer not immolated his career like a Buddhist monk protesting Nam.

No because the role is a complex one and the role needs to be played by a man in his 50s. Also, Armie doesn’t have the acting chops to pull off this role. As everyone has stated in their reviews, it’s a very complex and emotional performance. Armie was terrible in CMBYN. People lie and say he was amazing but it was Chalamet who was amazing and acted circles around Hammer.

At least Starkey doesn’t paint his nails or wear a dress on the red carpet.

R110 I meant the Starkey role going to Hammer.

Drew has a gorgeous body.

R112 the movie is about a middle aged American expat who lives in Mexico in the 1950s, specifically a part that has a lot of Americans, and is lonely beyond belief, desperate to connect with someone. In his loneliness he becomes an alcoholic and after meeting a very young attractive man, becomes infatuated with him, bordering on obsessed. The issue is the love he feels isn’t mutual. He’s a gay 50 something whose youth has passed and no one is interested in him or wants him, especially the attractive 20something.

Armie Hammer is almost 40.

Starkey is 30. If the age was so important they should have cast younger.

Irregardless, Hammer is blackballed from the industry so the hypothetical is irrelevant. Unfortunately for Hammer, Guadagnino would probably have given him a really good role eventually. Instead he made a film ABOUT him (Bones and All.)

[quote] the movie is about a middle aged American expat who lives in Mexico in the 1950s, specifically a part that has a lot of Americans, and is lonely beyond belief, desperate to connect with someone. In his loneliness he becomes an alcoholic and after meeting a very young attractive man, becomes infatuated with him, bordering on obsessed. The issue is the love he feels isn’t mutual. He’s a gay 50 something whose youth has passed and no one is interested in him or wants him, especially the attractive 20something.

Is Drew Starkey's character supposed to be straight, also?

In R55's clip, he's talking to a woman who looks like she could be a love interest.

R115 a 30 year old and a 38 year old are very different ages. A 30 year old playing a 24 year old is very different than a 38 year old playing a 24 year old. On top of that it’s about how you look. Starkey is 30 but looks very young. He looks appropriate while playing a teen on Outer Banks and most wouldn’t know he’s 30 if they didn’t look it up. Armie looks his age.

Armie Hammer was too old to play the role he did in CMBYN and many have said this. He LOOKED too old for the part. Why would he be appropriate to play a character who is the same age as his character in CMBYN years later? If he was too old 7 years ago he’s definitely too old now.

They could age up the character.

I could just eat him up, but not in a Armie Hammer way.

No. Aging him up changes everything drastically.

R55 looked like some bird’s mating ritual.

Related to Ringo?

He’s easier on the eyes than Chalamet and Powell.

[quote] Omar is so thirsty. Gurl, drink some agua

You're right R86 Omar sure needs a lot of validation in this clip, and it's kind of off-putting. He's a good looking young man, but it doesn't appear that he's secure with that. Maybe he's different when the cameras aren't around.

Luca wanted and cast Elordi as the lead for his project The Shards but the project ended up getting scrapped after Elordi decided to drop out.

This is wrongly being positioned as a love story which seems to be Guadagnino’s intention. There’s already some remarks about how off-putting this description is based on the age gap, etc.

I don’t think this was ever presented as a love story in the book but rather a need that Lee has as he’s going through heroin withdrawal to replace one need for another.

For Guadagnino, this seems to be some all-time love story and he and his screenwriter have departed from the book and written their own third act depicting, with marginal success, the merging of these two characters in a quest for romantic love. They’ve even rewritten Lee’s intention for pursuing the hallucinogenic drug so that he can use it to see whether Eugene is truly gay and really in love with him - in the book, it’s nothing like that, it’s completely transactional. This misreading of the novel seems to be what has made the film so ungainly.

There’s also several mentions of Craig’s “athletic” performance. Craig is the kind of actor that “attacks” his roles - it’s what made him such a good Bond - but not all characters are on the attack. Lee, in the novel, is much more discreet.

It all seems to have been perculating in Giadagnino’s mind for quite a while and, not surprisingly, he has personalised it and stylised it considerably which might be interesting. Because it’s based on Burroughs, it’s a text a lot of people won’t be familiar with, so it probably won’t suffer much by those comparisons - all of the reviews obviously cribed from the press materials with several naming the same insignificant detail of whom Burroughs based the character of Eugene on, etc., which is of no matter to the book, a film or to anyone. I saw only one or two reviews at most that demonstrated a credible familiarity with the source material. But even so, the reception and buzz on this film has peaked, and it will struggle to maintain this level of interest, especially outside of a film festival environment.

Even now, the only awards interest is in Craig’s performance - which is fine, awards are not the only measure of a film or even the primary reason for a film to exist. But, without that, I wonder how well this title will sell in many territories or even how it would be translated. (Or even the future cuts it would suffer.)

Which is another issue: when a film arrives with the spectre of a longer - in this case, one hour longer - Director’s cut, it kind of dampens interest in the theatrical cut, making it feel, for purists, inauthentic and incomplete. And as many reviewers described, this is a film for art house purists.

The last thing, in terms of getting that Best Actor nomination, is that it’s really going to depend how hard Craig wants to campaign for it. He’s not exactly Eddie Redcarpets and isn’t known to enjoy film promotion. Too bad for him he won’t be able to do it off the back of a Knives Out tour since the next instalment of that isn’t due out until late next year. Winning the Volpi Cup for Best Actor in Venice this week would certainly be a boost.

R126 that’s very interesting. I also felt Call Me By Your Name was made with the exact same misreading - the book was about obsession, not love - and that the age gap (enhanced in the movie because 30 year old Hammer looked closer to 35 than 25) was also handled badly.

But I also had a theory that Call Me By Your Name was filmed with a much darker ending (some pre-release materials indicated it was a tragedy) and Chalamet said he prepared for the role by watching De Palma’s Obsession. I think they couldn’t pull off the tone switch and premiered the film at Sundance because they weren’t sure it was successful and were surprised when it got a rapturous reception there.

Are you at Venice?

Jesus Elordi is 27, he can’t play a highschooler any more. He wasn’t meeting for The Shards.

I’m going to be in The Sharts.

Is Starkey this big in the film?

Big where?

Until the End of Time.

Starkey has come out of it well. Though I’m still not sure how lucrative being the guy you go to when Harris Dickinson passes will be.

[quote]Someone upthread mentioned Elordi and that’s actually funny because he was who Luca wanted for the role and they even had a meeting but it didn’t work out for unknown reasons.

It's not "unknown." Jacob Elordi has already alienated half of Hollywood with his massively overinflated ego. Sorry, but a co-starring role on an ensemble show about high school doesn't turn you into Tom Cruise overnight. (Unless you live in Chicago and drive a Porsche 928, but I digress.) Luca clearly has an eye for talents, but he also makes it clear that he hates divas, and Elordi is definitely that. (No, Armie was not. Nor was Timmy or Zendaya, and the latter two are simply exemplary actors.)

[quote]This is wrongly being positioned as a love story which seems to be Guadagnino’s intention. There’s already some remarks about how off-putting this description is based on the age gap, etc.

Huh – interesting. "It Ends With Us," of all things, got some similar criticism after Blake Lively allegedly insisted on final cut & significantly toned down its domestic violence. (Not sure why anyone would pick a role as a battered wife for FUN & UPBEAT, but whatever.)

[quote]R112 the movie is about a middle aged American expat who lives in Mexico in the 1950s, specifically a part that has a lot of Americans, and is lonely beyond belief, desperate to connect with someone. In his loneliness he becomes an alcoholic and after meeting a very young attractive man, becomes infatuated with him, bordering on obsessed. The issue is the love he feels isn’t mutual.

I admittedly haven't read the book, but this reads a whole lot like Tom Ford's version of Christopher Isherwood's "A Single Man." It's set in 1962 and in L.A., and involves a desperately lonely British expat who's at least preoccupied with a handsome young man he encounters, if not full-on obsessed (though he's admittedly not an alcoholic).

To be fair, it makes sense that Isherwood & Burroughs, obviously contemporaries, would be covering similar subject matter.

I'm pissed that Elordi turned down Luca, not once, but TWICE!

Fuck him.

I hope he gets no more leading roles in Hollywood.

This asshole needs to be cancelled!

R134 Is this just Elordi hating the Kissing Booth movies or something else?

Isn’t Elordi a bit hard to cast because of his height? He towers over everyone. That’s kind of a casting limitation.

Great points, R134. That description is what I’m talking about. Queer, the novel, is not A Single Man. The Burroughs character is already a heroin addict wanted for possession in Louisiana so he goes to Mexico City to wait out the statute of limitations. As he’s trying to or forced to kick heroin, he substitutes on need for another, his longing for Allerton who is basically an object of desire. Their relationship is purely transactional, Allerton doesn’t have any feelings for Lee. He has sex with Lee once when he’s drunk and Lee promises to get his camera out of hock. Lee begs him to accompany him to South America and they negotiate that he’ll have sex with Lee twice a week, etc. In the book, they never find or take the hallucinogenic drug yage and Allerton leaves Lee in the jungle and returns to Mexico City. They never see each other again. As many times as I’ve read it, the book is about longing as a substitute for addiction. Guadagnino and his screenwriter have written their own third act that departs significantly from the novel. As much as it departs stylistically as well (the settings in the book are ramshackle holes in the wall and look nothing like modern day gastro-pubs, nor are any of the characters described as looking like a male fashion story). I wonder why Guadagnino didn’t just write an original story - with a more marketable title - and just say he was inspired by Queer. Oh well. Still sounds interesting, if completely niche.

R137 The real problem is everyone on set wanting to suck my cock.

The Volpi Cup for Best Actor was won by an actor named Vincent Lindon for a film called The Quiet One.

Son

[quote]Jesus Elordi is 27, he can’t play a highschooler any more.

You'll soon be able to see 32-year-old Chase Stokes act alongside 30-year-old Drew Starkey in the fourth (and likely final) season of "Outer Banks," again playing teens. Premiering this fall!

I was a 50-year-old high schooler

I have never seen Outer Banks. What are the episodes Starkey is good in or has his shirt off.

Or his pants.

Which episode does he wear wet board shorts and he has a hard on?

What's the episode where they are stranded for the night in an abandoned stone lighthouse and it's really cold and they're afraid of alligators so they climb into a cramped loft and have to sleep all curled up together naked because their clothes got soaked in the storm?