美国国家公共电台 NPR Armie Hammer Says Filming 'Call Me By Your Name' Was Its Own Summer Romance

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The new movie "Call Me By Your Name" is based on a beloved novel. It tells the story of two young men who fall in love one summer in northern Italy.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CALL ME BY YOUR NAME")

ARMIE HAMMER: (As Oliver) What does one do around here?

TIMOTHEE CHALAMET: (As Elio) Wait for the summer to end.

HAMMER: (As Oliver) Yeah. And what do you do in the winter, wait for summer to come?

CHALAMET: (As Elio) Well, we only come here for Christmas and some other vacations; Easter as well.

HAMMER: (As Oliver) Christmas - I thought you were Jewish.

CHALAMET: (As Elio) Well, we are Jewish but also American, Italian, French - somewhat atypical combination.

SHAPIRO: Elio is 17. He's played by the relative newcomer Timothee Chalamet. Oliver is 24. He's played by Armie Hammer, who's best known for his roles in "The Social Network," "The Lone 1 Ranger 2" and other big-budget films. When we meet Oliver, he's all appetite and momentum 3, crushing soft-boiled eggs, throwing back glasses of fresh apricot juice, sleeping through dinner. Hammer told me the character is more complicated than he seems at first.

HAMMER: He is very brashly American in a lot of ways. And then in other ways, he's using that as a cover to cover an amount of discomfort 4 and self-unassuredness (ph) and all of that, so he's complicated, which, as an actor, makes him more interesting to play.

SHAPIRO: There's a lot of talk in the movie about covering, but a lot of the conversation about covering is about the fact that these two young men are both Jewish.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CALL ME BY YOUR NAME")

CHALAMET: (As Elio) Besides my family, you're probably the only other Jew to set foot in this town.

HAMMER: (As Oliver) I'm from a small town in New England. I know what it's like to be the odd Jew out.

SHAPIRO: And they talk about whether to wear a Jewish star, and what they don't talk about is the fact that they're also covering something else, the fact that each of them is in love with each other.

HAMMER: Right. Yeah. You know, there's a - there's that line in the movie and also in Andre Aciman's novel where they refer to themselves as Jews of discretion 5. And I think, you know, Oliver - Oliver wears his Judaism on his sleeve and - or on his neck more because he wears his Star of David and - which is funny and ironic 6 because there are other things about him that he does hide and that he cannot put out there, like the fact that he is in fact in love with Elio.

SHAPIRO: The movie is full of these images of beautiful, young men in ancient Roman art, people who lived thousands of years ago, whether it's frescoes 7 or statues or coins. And it's juxtaposed against this kind of fleeting 8 beauty of two young men in love in a summer that cannot last. Did seeing this ancient art in Italy all around you influence how you approached this film about this kind of fleeting beauty?

HAMMER: Absolutely. And that was one of the great things about getting to shoot in Italy as opposed to shooting it on the backlot of a studio is the location really did become its own character. And, you know, just being in that environment and really soaking that in informed so much of these characters and the vibe of the film.

SHAPIRO: Did you ever have a summer that you knew couldn't last, whether it was - I don't know - falling in love or just, like, meeting your best friend at the lake every day, that kind of summer where you see the end approaching and you hope you can somehow stave it off just a little while longer?

HAMMER: I did. I have had experiences like that, but I can easily say that this experience of this summer shooting this movie in Italy was something that eclipsed all of them. It...

SHAPIRO: Really.

HAMMER: This is my new summer romance, going to Italy, living there with Timmy, with Luca, being the - shooting the movie. They - it's a delightful 9 work ethic 10 over there. They shoot about eight hours a day, so you're done by 6 o'clock at night and you're back at Luca's apartment, and he's cooking these massive, delicious meals for us, and we're discussing the day, discussing what happened. Then we will watch movies together, and, you know, Luca, our director, Luca Guadagnino, is very much a sort of film historian and film buff, so he would put on movies for us and explain, OK, now this is important because of this in this scene and watch this and the blah, blah, blah, blah. So this was that summer for me that I knew was going to end and did not want it to.

SHAPIRO: This is amazing that your director would direct you by day and then cook for you in the evenings and then show you movies at night.

HAMMER: It's ridiculous. It's, like, the greatest thing in the world.

SHAPIRO: The movie's set in 1983, and so, of course, there's no Internet. There are no cellphones. And as I was watching it, I was wondering whether people can have those kinds of summers anymore with long afternoons of boredom 11 that just sort of drift into the next one.

HAMMER: Yeah. We actually talked about that quite a bit. If this would have taken place later, we don't think that this relationship would have ever happened. We don't think that they would have ever made that connection because Oliver would have come but, you know, Elio would've been busy on Instagram or Twitter and been talking to his friends. And he would have - he would have found busy stuff to keep him, you know, away from this whole thing evolving and developing. So yeah, it wouldn't be the same.

SHAPIRO: When I think about the romance in this film, there's one image that I keep coming back to and it's not the peach.

HAMMER: (Laughter).

SHAPIRO: It's the two of you sitting on the bed next to each other, and you touch his foot with your foot. And there are just these tiny little gestures throughout the movie that bring the relationship to life. Where did those come from?

HAMMER: Some of them were scripted. Some of them just sort of happened. Some of them were encouraged by Luca. Some of them were, you know, to facilitate a better shot. It all kind of just came from something organic. But, you know, it all was there to service the story of these two people falling in love with each other.

SHAPIRO: Is it true that you'd never done a sex scene before this movie?

HAMMER: Yeah, it's true, yeah.

SHAPIRO: Is it more challenging than the other types of things movie stars are called on to do every now and then?

HAMMER: I don't know. Dancing scenes are pretty tough.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

HAMMER: I'm not going to lie, dancing scenes are pretty tough.

SHAPIRO: Your dancing scene has been filling up my social media feed for weeks now.

HAMMER: I apologize.

SHAPIRO: I mean, clearly, it struck a chord.

HAMMER: Yeah. When we were doing that - it's really funny about filming a dancing scene because most people who, you know, aren't in the business don't realize that there is absolutely no music going on. If you're lucky, you get (snapping fingers) you get a click track that just is literally 12 just clicking so that you can keep a rhythm of what you're doing.

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

HAMMER: But then having no music, being completely sober, having everyone stare at you, it does not for an easy scene make.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter) And you're 6'5".

HAMMER: And I'm 6'5" so I feel like I'm, like, lanky 13 and, you know, like flailing 14 more than anything else. But so much of that scene was about watching someone be totally enraptured 15 and just lost in a moment and enjoying themselves because that's one of the things that is - that Oliver is able to do that Elio really appreciates.

SHAPIRO: The characters are 17 and 24, and we're in a moment right now where people are talking a lot about power dynamics 16 and sex. Do you think that as people are watching it today it might come across differently than it did two years ago when you were filming it?

HAMMER: I don't know. You know, I agree with you that right now it seems like there's a lot of attention being drawn 17 to power dynamics in relationships, and I think that's a great thing because for too long it's sort of just been the done thing and totally accepted for people in a position of power to use it to get exactly what they want and for people not in a position of power to just take it. I do feel fortunate that the way our relationship in the movie unfurls is - has very little to do with power dynamics. If anything, it really is Elio, the younger one, who has to be the one who is bold enough to say, Oliver, this is how I feel. This is what I'm going through. And so it's - there's less of that power dynamic in our relationship, which I'm thrilled about because it's just two people consensually falling in love with each other.

SHAPIRO: Armie Hammer stars in the new movie "Call Me By Your Name." Thank you so much for joining us.

HAMMER: Thank you, Ari. Thank you for having me - big fan of the show.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MYSTERY OF LOVE")

SUFJAN STEVENS: (Singing) Oh, to see without my eyes the first time that you kissed me. Boundless 18 by the time I cried, I built your walls around me. White noise, what an awful sound.