Disclaimer: Plot spoilers for Queer.
The most stark contrast between Queer (2024) and the written source material is the tone. William S. Burroughs wrote a story that gives readers a window into the internalised homophobia and repression one may find in gay men in the 1950s. There is a harsh cynical tone that exists in stark contrast to the romantic tone of the film adaptation.
At a special screening of the film back in November, Julia Roberts emerges to introduce it to the audience and sing its praises.
Roberts: I’m just so happy to live in a time and in a world where this kind of art exists and these kinds of artists exist. Luca Guadagnino has changed the last year of my life in such incredible, beautiful ways. One of those ways was seeing this film. This is how you’re going to measure now: before you saw Queer and after you saw Queer.
Note: The following conversation after the film’s screening has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Moderator: Luca, what inspired you to take on this project?
Guadagnino: There were many times in which I had wanted to make the movie for different reasons. The first was, when I read the book I was 17 and had this magic encounter with this magical writer who told me what it meant to create something with words and have imagery that was so vivid and unique that I was not aware of or ready to encounter at the time. I was working with a wonderful writer, Justin Kuritzkes, on Challengers and I felt the urgency to share with him my passion for the book and to investigate if the rights were available and they were.
Moderator: Did you feel like you have to complete a story?
Guadagnino: No. The book is unfinished but not totally unfinished. He suspends the narrative when they meet Dr. Cotter. Cotter doesn’t give them ayahuasca, they go away from the jungle, and there is an epilogue. The epilogue is slightly different. We wanted to pay justice to the beautiful modesty of Burroughs who had spent 35 years hiding from the book, not wanting the book to be published. The book was too close to him and he was a very shy person. He couldn’t really come to grasp the profound, shattering experience that the love for his real-life Eugene Allerton meant for him to share it with the world.
Moderator: Daniel, you’re channelling a lot of William Burroughs in Queer. How did you get that training? Did you listen to tapes of Burroughs, watch footage of him, read his writings?
Craig: All of the above, of course. What fascinated me most was, I saw an interview when he was talking very seriously about literature, science fiction, or whatever it was. It felt like a persona to me. I had to believe I wasn’t going to do that person. I didn’t think that person was going to be very interesting in a movie. Thankfully, there are some rare bits of footage of him relaxing and at home. Those were the bits I keyed into and I was nervous about doing that. The first day of shooting, we settled in and it become more apparent that it could be both. It could just be all of those things. I didn’t have to tie anything down.
Moderator: John Waters sent in a question for you two. He wanted to know if there was any difficult material for you to shoot in this film together? Anything you wouldn’t do or any uncomfortable situations?
Guadagnino: I would say not at all. It’s a very relaxing, familial environment.
Moderator: Well I’m sure you had an intimacy coach.
Guadagnino: we cannot talk about
Craig: You just get me into trouble when you talk about how I ban them from set. I didn’t ban them from set. I move them away slightly.
Guadagnino: They want to talk alone with the actors so that they can let them understand how to feel relaxed so I went to Daniel and said, “She wants to talk to you,” and they said, “Only in your presence.”
Craig: She was she was very nice and she was a dancer and she understood movement. She was very kind of good to have her around but we didn’t need it. I mean, listen, you need one there for obvious reasons. That’s a really important thing, to have an intimacy coordinator, don’t get me wrong.
Guadagnino: The very important thing also is that you and Drew had spent so much time rehearsing a dance in your underwear that there was no other reason you would have had the intimacy coordinator.
Moderator: Was there anything you were afraid to ask Daniel to do?
Guadagnino: No, because because when we spoke about the movie for the first time, I felt an immediate connection with Daniel, and profound intellectual and emotional understanding of what we both jointly wanted to do, which was ultimately a love story. That was it. It’s also built in. You start to get to know each other, you make the first costume fitting, things that make you become more and more intimate. If you are intuitive of the other, you understand who you have in front of you. The people that we were to one another, we were companions. That’s what happened. We became motivated to make something that we felt very strong about.
Moderator: Luca, you’re the master at casting, as you continue to amaze us with your choices. Daniel of course is one, but how did you come up with the decision to cast Lesley Manville in that crazy, outside the box role?
Guadagnino: Lesley is one of the great actors and and I always wanted to work with her. Dr. Cotter was a man in the book. I asked, she said yes.
Moderator: Daniel, what would you take away from this movie? Maybe it’s too soon to know that.
Craig: I mean, I know that I wanted to work with Luca for a long, long time, and we’ve been watching the movies he’s been making. They’re so beautifully creative and mad and I wanted to work with him and to get the chance to do this, which on paper seems this huge challenge but as soon as I read it, I just felt so connected to so I thought this is in my wheelhouse. Luca will be with me, we’re going to be okay. You know, I’m quite a tight Englishman and working with Luca was a freeing experience, not just because of what we were doing and the kind of crazy things we do. Literally because of the way that Luca sets up his set, he knows exactly what he’s doing, I know everything is under Luca’s watchful eye and he just allowed me and everybody on that set just to be free, to laugh, to have fun, to be playing, and we played all the way through that film.
Watch my full Queer review and the entire post-screening panel with star Daniel Craig and director Luca Guadagnino here:
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