Armie Hammer, right, stars in “Call Me by Your Name.”

Armie Hammer has worked with A-list directors David Fincher in “The Social Network,” Clint Eastwood in “J. Edgar,” and Tom Ford in “Nocturnal Animals.” He was the Lone Ranger opposite Johnny Depp’s Tonto in the eponymous mega-budgeted Western flop. He portrayed a slave owner in Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation.”

And now in Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name,” he is 24-year-old Oliver, a graduate student who captures the heart of 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet). The buzz for this adaptation of Andre Aciman’s novel is at a fever pitch. The drama has already picked up an early awards season prize, a Gotham Independent Film Award for best feature, and Hammer recently received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting male. He admits that he was hesitant to take the role.

“I thought it was one of the most beautiful stories I ever read, but I also thought, ‘Wow! This is intense,’ ” the 31-yearold actor says. “It was more intense and brutally honest than anything I’d ever done before. There are no green screens or big screens going on, just two people exposing their raw emotions to each other.

“There is so much in the subtle details of these two people gently and beautifully falling in love with each other. That was a huge challenge. I wasn’t sure I could do it. I was scared. Luca convinced me that because I was so scared, I had to do it.”

“Call Me by Your Name” takes place primarily at the sun-dappled villa where Elio’s family, the Perlmans, spends its summers. It is 1983, and Oliver has arrived to intern for Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg), a Greco-Roman professor father. The newcomer immediately captures Elio’s attention. Hammer’s co-star Stuhlbarg compares the scenario to a Shakespeare play.

It could be “one of the pastoral comedies, perhaps,” he says. “It is the opening of the kingdom, so to speak. ‘Here’s a beautiful world. Go find yourself.’ ”

Both Hammer and Chalamet are straight; the story required physical intimacy between

Call Me By Your Name (R) opens Friday, Dec. 15 at Bay Area theaters.

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom / Sony Pictures Classics Timothée Chalamet (left) is 17-year-old Elio, who is smitten by the towering Oliver (Armie Hammer) in the intense drama “Call Me By Your Name.”