Omar Apollo’s Soup Diet Prep for Sex Scene with Daniel Craig in ‘Queer’

One of the most talked-about titles at the 2024 Venice Film Festival is Queer, a film directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, which serves as their follow-up to Challengers. The movie features Daniel Craig portraying an American expatriate living in Mexico during the 1950s. According to the official synopsis, Craig’s character forms an “intimate connection” with a young student, played by Drew Starkey.

Queer also boasts a notable appearance by singer Omar Apollo, who shares a sex scene with Craig.

“Yeah, I had to get on the soup diet,” Apollo told Starkey in a conversation for Interview. “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 6’5″. 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.”

The “Pedro” singer celebrated his birthday on set in a memorable way, with everyone singing “Happy Birthday” and doing shots. “I had a lot of good birthdays and a lot of bad birthdays, but that was my best birthday,” he explained. “The most intense.”

A24 acquired the distribution rights for Queer in the United States, but an official release date is yet to be announced.