An actor in Daniel Craig's latest film has admitted he went to great lengths to get in shape for his role.
Omar Apollo, who stars alongside the 007 actor in Queer, has shared how he accomplished his goal of getting a ‘flat stomach’ in time for his shoot.
The 27-year-old explained that he had to go on an extreme diet to meet his weight goal, but made clear he was not told to do it by director, Luca Guadagnino.
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The A24 film tells the story of an American expat called William Lee who lives in Mexico City in the 40s.
The man then becomes obsessed with a younger student, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), and is introduced to the local gay scene, diving into drugs and partying.
That’s when he sees Omar’s character and the two make a connection in the bedroom.
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Based on a 1985 novel by William S Burroughs, which premiered at Venice Film Festival, the flick received a whopping nine-minute standing ovation from viewers.
As IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio explained, the film features 'the most explicit gay sex scenes I can remember in any mainstream movie', so there's obviously going to be a lot of nudity.
And that means having your body out on display.
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While on a press tour, Craig shared that filming sex scenes with the ‘wonderful, fantastic, beautiful’ Starkey was ‘touching’.
He explained: “You know as well as I do, there’s nothing intimate about filming a sex scene on a movie set. There’s a room full of people watching you.
“We just wanted to make it as touching and as real and as natural as we possibly could.”
Speaking to Interview Magazine alongside co-star Starkey, Omar explained he lost weight for the role so he didn’t ‘look off’.
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He shared: “Yeah, I had to get on the soup diet. Luca did not tell me to lose weight, but when you’re about to have a sex scene with Daniel Craig, you’re like, 'Oh, dude, I can’t be looking off.' I was at 200 pounds, because I’m six-five.”
He added: “It’s around where I should be, honestly. But I got down to 181 when the movie came. I lost 20 pounds because I read in the script that my character had a flat brown stomach.
“I was like, 'Damn, I’m actually not flat right now.' I had to get it together, and I was on tour with SZA. Luckily, I didn’t have that many lines.”
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According to Omar, Craig made the experience ‘beautiful’.
He shared: “I remember asking him, ‘How do you feel when the camera’s on?’ And he said, ‘To be honest, every time the camera’s on me, I’m terrified.’ I thought that was beautiful.
“You have to be vulnerable. You have to be open to these emotions. It was such an honest answer.”
Starkey also shared that he too lost weight for the role, dropping 30 pounds.
He said: “I got a little bit too thin, and Luca was like, ‘Hey, bring it back up a little bit’.”
The film has been heavily praised by critics, with The Guardian writing of Craig: “It is a really funny, open, generous performance – perhaps the only disadvantage is that he upstages Starkey, just a little, and his mesmeric screen presence will draw our attention back to Lee, away from Gene and his ambiguous intentions and emotions.
"Craig is so dominant that sometimes it seems that Gene is almost not worthy of him. Craig is strangely magnificent.”
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Britt Jones