Armie Hammer is possibly getting the best reviews of his life for Call Me By Your Name, the small film set in Italy where he seduces (or is seduced by) a 17-year-old played by Timothee Chalamet. Armie is also getting a lot of Woke Ally points for not shying away from playing this character and for defending the film. Armie’s actually been posing like a furry pin-up for a few months, and I can imagine a lot of men will be buying Armie drinks from here on out. Armie covers the latest issue of Out Magazine, but the piece isn’t a straight-up interview – it’s about how the film was made, how sensuality lies at the heart of it, and how Armie is really proud of it. He should be – there’s a good chance this film is going to be MAJOR Oscar-bait. You can read Out’s cover story here. Some highlights:
Armie on the intimacy of the film: “I’ve never been so intimately involved with a director before… Luca [Guadagnino] was able to look at me and completely undress me. He knew every single one of my insecurities, every time I needed to be pushed, and when I needed to be protected…. I probably fell in love with Luca the same way Elio fell in love with [my character] Oliver. I looked at him with amazement.”
The story involves Elio’s father approving of his son’s liaison & sexuality: “Someone said to me, ‘Wow, Mr. Perlman is such a radical father.’ I stopped them and said, ‘If his speech to his son about knowing yourself, and being OK with yourself because it doesn’t matter, is a radical position for a father, then may we all be radicalized.”
Armie almost turned down the role: “It seemed so subtle, so personal, and so real that I didn’t know if I could do that as an actor. I didn’t know if I had it in me to give such a tender performance. It scared me… [Luca] assuaged all my apprehensions by helping me to realize that fear and desire are part and parcel.”
Armie knows he can’t really front a franchise: “I think when I started having success in this business, largely as a result of The Social Network, people thought, Big, tall, handsome guy, let’s get him in front of a franchise, let’s make some big movies!, but it just didn’t pan out as everyone thought it would. That ended up being a blessing in disguise, because I got to consciously shift gears after The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and make these little movies that would push me. I hope this movie will lead to more of the same, and I hope people don’t necessarily associate me with the guy who wants to make big movies.”
He loves this film: “I know that I will carry the experience of making this movie for the rest of my life. I don’t want to say movies can change the world, but if we can change one person’s perspective, we can change that person’s world.”
I do think Armie was seen, at one point, as the next big thing, the new guy who could front franchises and be a major movie star. But after seeing him in various films… I think right now, he’s at home in smaller films and finding a niche as an unlikely character actor. Maybe he’ll be that franchise guy at some point – men are given more time than women to grow – but for now, I like that he’s doing stuff like this. And if it ends up with an Oscar nomination for Armie, so be it!
Here’s the trailer for Call Me By Your Name:
Cover courtesy of Out, photo courtesy of Getty.
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