Vibe stayed sensual even off screen, Hammer says
The frigid temperatures of winter may be blowing in, but it’s a different story at the movies with Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino’s sensual new romantic drama, “Call Me by Your Name.”
Set in the smoldering summer of 1983 in romantically remote northern Italy, the film is the story of AmericanItalian teen Elio Perlman, played by Timothée Chalamet, falling in love with Oliver, played by Armie Hammer, an American adult spending the summer as an intern for Elio’s father, a professor played by Michael Stuhlbarg.
Guadagnino has said that “Call Me By Your Name” closes his thematic trilogy on the topic of desire, following his acclaimed “I Am Love” ( 2009) and “A Bigger Splash” ( 2015).
Hammer, who had his breakout performance as the Winklevoss twins in “The Social Network” ( 2010), said the atmosphere on the set of “Call Me by Your Name” was “almost entirely analogous to the tone of the film.”
“That sort of languorous, relaxed, comfortable, sensual, almost sweaty, hot vibe was there all day every day when we were shooting,” said Hammer. “You know, Luca really set the tone as the director does. He set the tone for the rest of the film and for the rest of the crew, so he intentionally kept it a very relaxed, comfortable, open, non- judgmental space where people just felt like they could truly be themselves and be happy.”
Hammer, who in recent years starred in mainstream Hollywood blockbuster fare such as “The Lone Ranger” ( 2013) and “The Man From U. N. C. L. E.” ( 2015), said the process of collaborating with Guadagnino and Chalamet represented a personal and professional change of pace for him.
“It was just a world that I had never really been a part of,” Hammer said. “As someone who grew up in sort of, like, conservative white America, you don’t talk about your feelings, you don’t talk about your desires, you certainly don’t have long conversations about the nature of desire and what it means to crave something and all of that. So it was kind of eye- opening and a beautiful experience to get to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.”
While the film’s central plot concerns a same- sex relationship, in its lushly swooning execution it captures a universal sense of first love.
“A lot of that has to do with Luca — his understanding of the base, core levels of human psychology and emotion and desire and want and passion,” said Hammer.
“Because the thing about this film is anybody — regardless of your orientation or identification or age or race or whatever — you can watch this film and you can remember the first time you felt infatuated with somebody or the first time you felt comfortable enough to sort of present the open and honest, raw, unguarded version of yourself to somebody else and to have it received and appreciated and then reciprocated, when someone then gives you them.
“We can all identify with that, you know? And that’s a beautiful thing that makes love what it is and that’s a very base, human thing.”