Omar Apollo confirms debut role in Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer’ & the internet has thoughts

Did Omar Apollo catch the acting bug after spending all that time hanging out with Pedro Pascal?

This morning, it was confirmed that the alt-pop singer-songwriter is set to make his on-camera debut opposite Daniel Craig in Queer, the latest from acclaimed director Luca Guadagnino.

Based on the author William S. Burroughs’ loosely autobiographical novella of the same name (which was penned in the ’50s, but not published until 1985 due to “heavy homosexual content”), the film follows an American expat (Craig) on the hunt for a transcendental drug in Mexico City who becomes obsessed with a younger man (Outer Banks‘ Drew Starkey).

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There’s no word yet on who Apollo will play, but rumors that he would make an appearance in the film began circulating as far back as last summer, when he was spotted in Rome while Queer was filming—and even appeared in a selfie with Guadagnino!

The buzz sent fans into a frenzy of questions: Is Apollo’s role just a cameo, or something more? Would he and Craig share any scenes—possibly romantic scenes? And is this why the singer shaved his signature facial hair?

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Daniel Craig is going ‘Queer’ in Luca Guadagnino’s next movie & here’s everything we know (so far)
According to a new report, Craig gives “the performance of his career” in the “fantastic” three-hour long movie.

Apollo joins a pretty iconic ensemble that also includes Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore), Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Henrique Zaga (Teen Wolf), A Ghost Story director David Lowery, comedy legend Drew Droege, and Catfish co-director Ariel Schulman.

Sharing the news on social media, Apollo praised the “hot ass cast” and called Guadagnino his favorite director:

The announcement comes less than a month after rising star Apollo released his second studio album, God Said No, to critical acclaim, earning a positive 82/100 score on review aggregator Metacritic.

Early singles like “Spite” and “Dispose Of Me” were warmly received, but by far the LP’s buzziest track has been “Pedro,” which features a spoken-word story from the aforementioned Pascal himself.

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So, what is Omar Apollo’s new track “Pedro” all about?
“It’s a very beautiful story. It’s very heart-shattering.”

So, clearly, these two Latin hotties have been rubbing off on each other. Hey, we said rubbing off on, not rubbing on—get your mind out of the gutter!

Anyway, fans are clearly excited to see Apollo try his hand at acting in Queer. And others are just excited to see Guadagnino (how has a track record of casting straight actors like Timothée Chalament in queer roles) finally cast someone who’s openly gay. Here’s what the internet has to say about it:

You manifested that pic.twitter.com/fn3aXTAWWt— omar apollo info (@omarapolloinfo) July 23, 2024

When will Luca Guadagnino’s Queer premiere?

News of Omar Apollo’s casting broke today alongside the announcement that Queer would premiere at the prestigious Venice International Film Festival, as had long been rumored.

The film’s debut comes hot on the heels of Luca Guadagnino’s previous film, Challengers, the sexy tennis drama that heated up movie theaters this past spring. The director is currently filming his next feature—After The Hunt, starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, and Andrew Garfield—presumably wrapping production before he takes Queer to Venice, which kicks off on August 28 and runs through September 7.

My goodness, Luca Guadagnino is a busy man! We don’t know how he does it!

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We’re starting to get concerned with the ‘Call Me By Your Name’ director’s busy schedule.

And it’s not like he’s phoning it in either: Queer was previously speculated to be upwards of three hours long, though the Venice announcement today confirms it has a total run time of 151 minutes (that’s two and a half hours, for the math averse).

Of course, we wouldn’t mind sitting through hours of what Guadagnino has previously described as his “most personal film” featuring “numerous and quite scandalous” sex scenes. Maybe Omar Apollo will even get to participate?

We even got our first official look at the movie today: A gorgeous shot of a younger man (presumably Starkey’s character?) photographing a building with piles of fruit outside. Considering how Guadagnino used churros in Challengers to play up the homoeroticism, we’d keep an eye on those bananas….

Actually Queer‘s phallic fruit is just one of the many reasons all eyes will soon be on the Venice International Film Festival, which will include the world premiere of plenty of highly anticipated titles, like the Lady Gaga-starring Joker: Folie à Deux musical sequel, Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature The Room Next Door with Tilda Swinton & Julianne Moore, Angelina Jolie as famed opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s Maria, and the brilliantly titled Babygirl from Halina Reijn which sees The Iron Claw hunk Harris Dickinson in a May-December relationship with Nicole Kidman.

Bring. It. On! For the full lineup of the 81st Annual Venice Film Festival, check out Indiewire‘s rundown here.