Josh O’Connor is no longer in talks to star in Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Separate Rooms, the actor has confirmed. This is why. 

The star is no stranger to working with director Guadagnino, after his hugely successful turn as Patrick in Challengers. In the film, the tennis star goes head-to-head with his rival, Art (Mike Faist), the husband of his ex-lover Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). 

Variety previously reported that the 35-year-old actor will take on the lead role in the upcoming queer film from the Call Me By Your Name director, adapted from the eponymous novel by late Italian writer Pier Vittorio Tondelli.

Separate Rooms follows Leo, an Italian writer who meets pianist Thomas while travelling through Paris. The pair start a love affair that lasts several years, and while they continue their separate lives in different countries, they meet frequently in cities across Europe. Eventually, tragedy strikes and Leo is left mourning the loss of his true love. 

Until recently, O’Connor was reportedly in talks to take on the role of Leo. However, he has since told Deadline that he is no longer involved in the project. 

“Unfortunately not,” he responded to a question about his status in the film. “Luca’s working all the time. He’s such a busy bee and rightly so. We’re constantly talking. He may well do it, but unfortunately, it won’t be with me.”

Away from his since-fallen-through role, O’Connor is set to star opposite Paul Mescal in The History of Sound, a romantic period drama with “moments” of intimacy.

Guadagnino, however, has been tapped for an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho. The groundbreaking and controversial 1991 book was adapted into a Christian Bale-fronted film in 2000 and later into a stage musical starring Doctor Who’s Matt Smith.

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