Luca Guadagnino Directs Omar Apollo’s ‘Te Maldigo’ Short Film with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Omar Apollo may have made his acting debut with “Queer,” but he’s not limiting his collaborations with Luca Guadagnino at just feature films: The duo have reunited for music video “Te Maldigo,” which Apollo announced as a partnership with A24.
The song also brings Grammy-nominated Apollo back with “Queer” composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who also collaborated with Guadagnino on the “Challengers” score.
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The video brings audiences into the underground bar scene that “Queer” encapsulates. The video, like the feature, is set in Mexico City post-WWII. Apollo sings onstage in the short film, which debuted at midnight on November 21.
Produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who composed the score for the film, “Te Maldigo” is Apollo’s first song entirely in Spanish since 2022’s “En El Olvido.” The track is the first single from Apollo’s sophomore album “God Said No,” which was released in May 2024.
Apollo wears a custom suit created by LOEWE creative director and “Queer” costume designer Jonathan Anderson in the video for “Te Maldigo,” which embraces the aesthetic of the feature.
Apollo told IndieWire that Guadagnino cast him in “Queer” via social media.
“Somebody DM’d me on their end of things,” Apollo said. “They said, ‘Luca wants you in the film,’ and I was like, ‘OK, tell him I’ll be in it.’ I didn’t even know what it was. I hadn’t met him before, and then a few days later, we’re on a Facetime call with my manager, and then, he tells me about the role, about the scene, and what I would have to do.”
In “Queer,” Apollo plays a one-time love interest of Daniel Craig’s lead character Lee. The sequence starring Apollo involves nudity and an intricately choreographed sex scene.
“I only told a few friends because I honestly didn’t want opinions about, ‘Oh, your first role is a sex scene? I don’t know, bro,’” Apollo said of the part. “I didn’t want that. So I kept it really tight. I told, like, five of my friends; I have tons of friends but, my five, you know, the mains. Then I was just cool with that. I mean, it’s all unfamiliar. It was all new. I was like, ‘Oh, like, how confidential is all this stuff?’ I just really [was thinking] that I didn’t want to lose the role. They don’t really talk to you that much when you’re in the process of getting a role, it’s a lot of waiting on an email or something. It ended up all being fine, and I guess I gossiped the perfect amount.”
He added of appearing in the William S. Burroughs adaptation, “I was taking it in. I was looking around at everyone’s faces. I was humble about that. I’m an artist, I’m from Indiana, and I’m not going to fake being humble. I was like, ‘Yes, watch this. This is a great thing. You should be paying attention, it’s important to William’s life.’ I lent myself to develop his character.”
Guadagnino previously told IndieWire that Apollo’s role is key to the whole film.
“In the book, this is the first person that Lee actually meets in the movie. [It] was so important to be very precise and, at the same time, very iconic,” Guadagnino said. “I always [have] been a fan of Omar. I thought that he could bring this feeling of contemporaneity to a movie that is set in a period that is far from us, because I think a great period drama behaves in relation with the present of the making of the movie. So I think Omar brings that.”
Guadagnino is in talks to make his superhero debut with DC Studios’ “Sgt. Rock,” which will be penned by “Challengers” and “Queer” screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes and “Queer” lead star Craig. Guadagnino also is in post-production on Amazon MGM Studios’ “After the Hunt,” which stars Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield. Guadagnino is set to remake “American Psycho,” which is rumored to star Jacob Elordi.
Additionally, Guadagnino will work with his “Challengers” actor Josh O’Connor (who also stars alongside Craig in “Wake Up Dead Man”) for the “Separate Rooms” adaptation. Léa Seydoux is set to co-lead the feature, a queer drama based on the novel of the same name by late author Pier Vittorio Tondelli.
Check out Guadagnino’s “Te Maldigo” below.
“Queer” premieres November 27 in select theaters and nationwide December 13.
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