Drew Starkey Admits He Has a ‘Little Bit of Troy Bolton in Me’ as Basketball Was His ‘First Love’

Before Drew Starkey decided to pursue acting full-time, he had his “head in the game,” much like Troy Bolton in High School Musical.

The 31-year-old opened up about his love for basketball before he became an actor in an interview with Dazed Magazine. He joked that, like the main character of the hit Disney films who plays basketball for his head coach father but finds himself drawn to the theater, “I got a little bit of Troy Bolton in me” — especially since Starkey’s dad also works as a head basketball coach at Kent State University.

“Basketball was my first love,” Starkey explained. But despite his passion for the sport, Starkey found still found himself drawn to acting: “I was like, ‘No, Dad, I want to sing and dance, you know, I’m meant to be an actor.’ ”

“Sometimes you can hit a flow where it feels like, This is what I’m meant to be doing, and it’s second nature,” he continued. “It’s unconscious in some way. And l feel like that happens, at least for me, very rarely, and striving for that is I think what makes it so addictive.”  

Starkey’s starring role in Outer Banks as Rafe Cameron, the complex and entitled older brother ofMadelyn Cline’s character Sarah, became his breakout role. He’ll next be seen in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer — an adaptation of William Burroughs’ novel —alongside Daniel Craig.

In Queer, Craig’s character William Lee (Burroughs’ alter ego) develops an obsessive infatuation for Starkey’s Eugene Allerton in 1950s Mexico City. Starkey described the characters’ feelings for one another throughout the film as a “deep kind of longing [that lingers] underneath the surface… except one presents it more.”

“There’s some type of misfiring within Lee that won’t allow him to express that,” he continued. “That fear of someone truly getting to know who you are is one that I struggled with for, I mean, the majority of my life. That can stop people in their tracks.”

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Starkey opened up about working on Queer at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 6 and revealed that while he was nervous to shoot “every” scene in the film, it was “incredible” to work alongside Craig and that he offered “”a good bit of guidance” to him.

“He’s such a dream to work with,” Starkey continued. “Such an amazing artist and he was the most giving actor I’ve ever worked with. I mean, I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”

Craig also shared praises for Starkey’s performance in the film and told reporters “I love him to death. He’s the best.”

Along with Craig and Starkey, Queer also stars Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, Drew Droege and Omar Apollo and is now playing in limited theaters.