The newest Luca boy is doing Luca boy things. That’s right. Drew Starkey, the star of Luca Guadagnino’s new film Queer is getting a little weird with his look, which we encourage and value in this home. Starkey showed up to a party thrown by W Magazine with bleached eyebrows. He then showed up to the National Board of Review Gala in New York City a few days later with them filled in.
Bleached brows are the hot, edgy beauty trend that seeped out of freak subculture spaces and into semi-mainstream spaces last year. So many celebs have bleached their brows in recent memory, so maybe it’s not THAT weird, but still it is a fascinating choice to do it during the award season of your first prestige role, right at the apex of your big break. But of course he filled them in at the very serious critics’ gala. It’s the Hollywood equivalent of taking your eyebrow piercings out to visit your grandma.
But still, I support it fully. It’s actually genius because Starkey has not been nominated for any major acting awards this year, but the film he starred in nominated all over the place. That means his visibility is high, and his risk for losing awards is low. This is the exact time to play. You’re a young man in prestige film now, Drew! You have to get a little strange, experiment with your look, confuse the people at home, make them fight. It’s the best thing you can do for your career right now. This is actually, in many ways, the formula for success right now. The fans online are harmlessly fighting over whether it looks good. The social media algorithms, famously, reward posts that yield strong takes and polarizing opinions. That means his name will be everywhere, alongside Getty photography from events he gets to attend as a party, rather than a major work responsibility where he might have to give a speech. Genius.
