Daniel Craig got jittery rolling around naked in coffee grounds

Daniel Craig has discovered an alternative to his usual morning cuppa joe.

The actor recalled learning of the bizarre new method of caffeine consumption while discussing his latest film, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, recently.

“There’s a sequence where we do a dance — I won’t give the game away, but there’s a dance in the movie,” Craig said, beginning to explain what happened on Friday’s episode of The Graham Norton Show. “We were doing it outside on the backlot, and it was just ground — it was gravel — and we had to sort of roll around for two nights. I was like, ‘We’re gonna get cut to pieces.’ We’re naked in the scene.”

Fortunately, a crew member had a solution for Craig’s concerns. “Someone very kindly said, ‘That’s not gonna work. We’re gonna be bleeding. It’s not gonna be very good for the scene,'” he recalled. “So we got back the following night, and someone had put like 50 pounds of coffee grounds down on the ground, so it looked like dirt. Which is great — soft and lovely.”

However, using faux dirt had unintended consequences. “You can absorb it through your skin, so by 6 o’clock in the morning, in a night shoot, you’re like, ‘Yeah, goodnight!'” he said in a comically frantic, amped-up tone.

Craig’s costar Drew Starkey recently shared his own recollection of the experience in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “We were essentially naked. [Guadagnino] was like, ‘They’re going to get cut up after the first take. Their skin’s going to be ripped to shreds if it’s just dirt,'” he recalled. “So they laid these mats out, these crash pads almost, and then it was coffee grounds [on top of that].”

Starkey, too, got a major caffeine buzz from filming the scene. “By the end of the night [when] we shot that, Daniel and I were wired,” he said. “I guess the coffee can absorb into your skin. I was up for hours after.”

During the Graham Norton Show interview, Jesse Eisenberg, who was also on Norton’s couch to promote his film A Real Pain, was flabbergasted by Craig’s anecdote. “Is that true?” the Social Network star asked, incredulous.

“It’s true, it is true,” Craig confirmed.

Norton asked, “So if you just rub coffee on yourself…?”

Craig didn’t think that strategy would have quite the same effect. “Well, I mean, if you roll around in it for 12 hours,” he said. “I’m not sure if you just rub coffee you’ll get it.”

Eisenberg joked that Craig’s discovery might become his go-to coffee routine. “I have such a sensitivity to caffeine,” he said. “Maybe I should just take a little walk in it. I think I might stroll.”

Craig recommended it. “It’s very nice, it’s very soft,” he said. “Barefoot, just stroll back and forth every morning.”

Eisenberg responded, “‘Cause I can’t do a full cup, but maybe I can do a little stroll. I’ll pour cream on it, too, just to make it fancy. ‘I’d like to walk on some coffee and sugar this morning.'”

Craig also discussed his intimate scenes with Starkey with Entertainment Weekly. “I feel like the physical act is the least interesting thing,” he said. “We’re all grown-ups. This is what people do. But the only thing that’s interesting, and what I think hopefully works about the scenes, is the emotional journey of each character. That’s what we wanted to get across. I think that’s why they work.”

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The actor also explained why he was attracted to the role. “I saw this very complicated, emotional character in the [William S. Burroughs] book that I thought would be just a joy to take on and really have a go at trying to create,” Craig said.

Watch Craig on The Graham Norton Show in the clip above.