Passions heated on ‘Call Me’ set
Armie Hammer hesitates when talking about a sequel to his Golden Globe-nominated film “Call Me By Your Name.”
Even though the Italy-based drama has been a boost to his career, Hammer fears that revisiting the love story would be like trying to recapture lightning in a bottle.
“It was so unique and really one of the most creative and satisfying things I have ever done,” he said during a recent interview in Toronto.
“Part of me is like, we should never go back and try to do anything like that again.”
Hammer is romanticizing the experience of shooting “Call Me By Your Name,” but with award season giving the film a hearty push, he’ll have to reckon with growing calls for another chapter. The film received Golden Globe nominations last week for best drama, supporting actor for Hammer and lead actor for his co-star Timothee Chalamet.
The buzz is certain to put the film in the Oscar conversation. Before then, it opened in Toronto and Vancouver on Friday and plays in several other major Canadian cities starting this week.
“Call Me By Your Name” is set in 1983 and centres on Elio, a 17-year-old who is infatuated and confused by feelings for his father’s 24-yearold apprentice Oliver, played by Hammer. As the family spends months at their Italian villa, the two men grow closer while pent up sexual repression collides with emotional connection. It’s a comingof-age story set against the simplicity of a summertime getaway.
Chalamet was a budding actor with a small part in “Interstellar” and a recurring gig on TV’s “Homeland,” while Hammer was mostly associated with box-office duds like “The Lone Ranger” after his breakthrough playing the Winklevoss twins in “The Social Network.”
Italian director Luca Guadagnino had been struggling to bring Andre Aciman’s 2007 novel to the screen for the better part of a decade. After originally taking a producer role, he decided the only way to get it made was to become the director himself. His work with Tilda Swinton on “I Am Love” and “A Bigger Splash” had already won acclaim from critics and prizes at numerous film festivals.
Shooting near the small Italian town of Crema was an immersive experience. The actors moved to the community weeks before production to experience the local culture and Guadagnino urged them to spend days together to build a convincing onscreen relationship.
Chalamet, who was 19 at the time, took a crash course in Italian and learned piano to get into Elio’s mindset.
Other passions were rampant throughout the shoot, Chalamet added, particularly when it came to Guadagnino. One day, the director became convinced his infatuation for the sprawling Italian villa where the film is set should be made official on paper.
“Luca had an urge, because he fell in love with it, to purchase it,” Chalamet said.