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Luca Guadagnino's Queer featured full frontal, but did we see the real deal downstairs?
While some question if the actors used prosthetics, we'd like to give two very hard thumbs up for the actors' seriously steamy onscreen nudity game.
When it comes to sex in film, one thing is for sure: At times, it can definitely shock us.
Granted, it isn’t necessarily the type of shock that has us clutching our pearls, but is rather the type of shock that makes us wonder, just for a moment, if we’ve accidentally put on a different type of adult film.
A recent example of a film that made us blush is Queer by Luca Guadagnino, which just released nationwide on December 13. We already knew this would be a sexy and provocative film that would give us more nudity and sex than Guadagnino’s previous venture with Call Me By Your Name, and the full-frontals in the film certainly delivered.
In case you’re unfamiliar, the film is based on a 1985 novella of the same name by William S. Burroughs, which also serves as a partial sequel to his 1953 novella, Junkie. It centers around an American Navy serviceman, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), who becomes the focal point of the obsession for the much older William Lee (Daniel Craig), an American expat and struggling drug addict in Mexico City.
Eventually, after some convincing from Craig's character, the two wind up heading out to South America in search of a telepathy-inducing psychedelic in the jungle. The journey between the two includes a lot of nudity, a lot of sex, and a lot of investment from the actors, including Omar Apollo, who made his film brief but notable movie debut as one of Craig’s other onscreen lovers.
In a recent interview with TIME, Guadagnino, Craig, Starkey, and Apollo all addressed the heavy sex, with Guadagnino saying, “For me, this is not about gay or homosexuality, it’s more about: Are we ready for connection? What is preventing these characters from having a full-blown connection?”
That full-blown connection involves some very eye-catching and fully nude visuals, of which Starkey admitted he used a prosthetic, which is a common practice to help actors during sex scenes.
“We got to embarrass ourselves in front of one another,” said Starkey. “And have little accomplishments in the choreography with each other. That imbued its way into everything.”
As to why he didn’t go full frontal himself, Craig said of the others, “They’re young. They’re young and beautiful.” To the sex, he admitted they’ve “gone for that sort of vulnerability and keeping it as real as it possibly can be,” with hopes that translated well onto the screen.
Apollo, on the other hand, didn’t confirm nor deny whether he used one for his role. Until further notice, we're just going to allow ourselves to pretend we got to see it all.
Catch Queer out in theaters now, and keep an eye out for its streaming release.
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