One of Call Me By Your Name’s best shots was Armie Hammer’s idea
Luca Guadagnino is one of our most celebrated modern directors, with his work on movies like 2015’s A Bigger Splash, last year’s Call Me By Your Name, and this year’s Suspiria remake anointing him as one of Hollywood’s chosen few. But, as Call Me By Your Name star Timothée Chalamet revealed in a recent interview, even the masters need a helping hand now and then.
The scene where Chalamet’s Elio reveals his simmering feelings for Armie Hammer’s Oliver unfolds across one long take, the pair slowly circling an Italian World War I memorial. It’s a stunning sequence in how it grounds Elio’s operatic declaration in the awkward present, with no cinematic tricks serving to soften his vulnerability. It was also, Chalamet says, a scene that, prior to filming, Guadagnino couldn’t quite unlock. Thankfully, he had an actor on hand who was more than just a pretty face.
“On the day, Luca Guadagnino didn’t quite know how he wanted to shoot it, and it was actually Armie Hammer who had the idea to do it in one take and in a wide shot,” Chalamet says. “It took away the whole cringey Hollywood feeling. If you mute the movie you can’t tell it’s somebody telling somebody else that they are in love with them.”
Chalamet’s reveal comes in the midst of an interview with pop star and actor Harry Styles, the likes of which sent a seismic rumble through stan Twitter upon its publication. It’s a pretty great chat, with the pair touching on politics, social media, and, of course, peaches. Can you still eat them, Harry wants to know. “Umm I can,” Chalamet says, “but not without thinking about it…”
Read the full interview here, and rejoice in the positive effect that rapper Lil B, of all people, appears to have had on America’s most promising young star.