Drew was also on the cover of WWD Magazine last month, specifically in the December 18th digital issue. Still part of Queer promotion, he mostly talked about the movie, navigating stardom, and much more. The full interview is available to read in our press archive! Also visit our gallery for the outtakes and scans.
Photo Sessions > 2024 > 011: WWD
Magazine Scans > 2024 > WWD – December 18, 2024
The pressure to capitalize on his Hollywood moment and fling himself at everything was never going to be Drew Starkey’s style.
“I’m not a good multitasker at all,” Starkey says. “I like to have a singular thing to focus on. A lot of my peers are really good at juggling a lot of different things at once, and I’m like, ‘how do you do that?’” he adds.
“It is nice to put almost all of your energy into one thing, and really experience it fully. That’s the only way that I know how to work, and that’s how I like to work.”
Since August, the 31-year-old has been laser-focused on “Queer,” his new film costarring Daniel Craig (who is now Golden Globe nominated for the film), Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville and Omar Apollo. The project, which reunites director Luca Guadagnino with his “Challengers” screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes and costume designer Jonathan Anderson (of Loewe), is based on the 1985 book by William S. Burroughs and follows an American expat living in Mexico City in the 1950s and his relationship with a younger man new to town.
Starkey’s global tour for “Queer” kicked off with the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival, with stops at various other film festivals, premieres and Loewe’s Paris Fashion Week show (he’s a new face of the brand, along with Craig). It’s a big undertaking for the actor, who has managed to stay largely out of the limelight despite a star status on the ascent for a few years now.
“I was a bit nervous going into it that I wouldn’t be able to handle it,” he says. “I get very overstimulated pretty easily by attention and a lot of people, but it’s been good having Luca and Daniel and Jonathan and all these great people. Us being together throughout all of it has made it really, really light and really fun.”
He’s come into the experience with a new sense of clarity after one of the busiest periods of his career. Last year, after wrapping “Queer” he headed straight to Charleston to shoot “Outer Banks,” only to be grounded by the SAG strike days later.
“It was the first time I’d really had a long break, and I was like, ‘I don’t know who I am.’ I did a lot of soul searching this year and found ways to be a little more comfortable with myself, not attached to work,” he says.
That included a week and a half of solo backpacking in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, along with a renewed focus on journaling.
“I am a person who really does need to give myself solitude — it’s a reminder of like, ‘oh, right, there’s an outward communication that I need to tune into a little more,’” he says. “I get so wrapped up in a creative process sometimes that I need to talk to myself more.”
His role in “Queer,” as a mysterious, quiet young man named Eugene Allerton, first entered his radar when his agents told him Guadagnino was interested in meeting for breakfast.
“I was like, ‘what the f–k?’” he says. “And then I sent in a couple auditions and we just talked about it for a few months. It was organic. I’ve never had a process like that before. I just felt like I was getting to know Luca and he was getting to know me.”
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