A return trip to Italy? Call me, says Hammer
Success of love story set at idyllic villa has inspired sequel talk
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 lighting 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 for best drama, supporting actor for Hammer and lead actor for co-star Timothée Chalamet.
The buzz is certain to put the film in the Oscar conversation.
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-year-old 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 coming-of-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 such as 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.
“I felt like I did away with parts of me that wouldn’t appropriately bleed into the character,” he said.
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. “Luca had an urge, because he fell in love with it, to purchase it,” Chalamet said. “I think there was like a squad of 10 people who were like: ‘No, no, no. That is a bad idea.’ ”
The director snapped out of it and decided it wasn’t the best investment.
When filming on Call Me By Your Name wrapped at summer’s end, Chalamet found it difficult to resume a normal life in New York, where the intensity of daily life carried a much colder energy.
“I struggled deeply in the fall,” he said. “Going back to school and feeling like: ‘What’s happened? Did that just happen?’ ”
When Call Me By Your Name captured rave reviews at both the Sundance and Toronto film festivals, it brought the actors back to the dream world they inhabited for a brief time.
But there could be some hurdles on the path to award season.
The film is already generating controversy, with some questioning the age gap between the characters and others wondering why both lead roles went to straight actors.
None of this has slowed Guadagnino, who has felt a similar longing for the days of shooting. He told the actors he’s already working on the script for a sequel, one that would reveal more about Hammer’s character.
“It opens with a steamy scene with Oliver,” he said. “And I’m not teasing — it’s true.”
Hammer smiles when confronted with the increasing likelihood he’ll be asked to reprise his role.
Even though he’s still hesitant, he admits it wouldn’t be easy to turn down another passionate summer in Italy.
“If they actually came to me and were like: ‘Hey we’re doing another one.’ I’d be like: ‘I’m in,’ ” he said.