‘Call Me by Your Name’ Director Reveals Why You Never See Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer Have Sex
Every Call Me by Your Name fan seems to have a different opinion of the type of movie adaptation that they wanted. Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino had his own approach, but some fans took issue with him casting two straight actors for LGBTQ roles. Guadagnino reveals why you never see Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer have sex in Call Me by Your Name.
‘Call Me by Your Name’ fans wanted more sexuality from Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer
Call Me by Your Name was an indie darling that both critics and audiences instantly fell in love with. However, some fans of the original book had issues with how the movie interpreted the more sexual scenes. There was some speculation that Call Me by Your Name wrote out nudity for Chalamet and Hammer’s contracts, but the filmmaker says otherwise.
The movie has its share of sexual scenes, including the famous peach sequence. However, when things get more intimate, the camera pans away. As a result, some fans wanted to see more of Chalamet and Hammer in Call Me by Your Name to fulfill some of the more sexually-intense moments in the book.
‘Call Me by Your Name’ director Luca Guadagnino explains why he panned away from Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer’s sex scene
Fantastic Man interviewed Guadagnino about Call Me by Your Name and working with Chalamet and Hammer. They asked the filmmaker what it means to pan the camera away during these particular sex scenes.
“In my opinion, that was the moment when I was leaving the lovers alone,” Guadagnino said. “I didn’t want to make a movie about the lust of two bodies. Call Me by Your Name is a movie about love. It’s never about showing a raunchy moment of sex, or whatever kind of sex they were having. I don’t know how these guys were having sex. That’s not the point.”
The interviewer emphasized his point, saying, “You weren’t censoring yourself.”
“No,” Guadagnino answered. “And also, I was never trying to make a mainstream film. I never considered whether anything we were filming would annoy a mainstream audience. That was never a consideration.”
Guadagnino continued: “Nobody thought while we were filming that we were making a mainstream film about gay love, or that we were going to have a huge audience. Who could have known? The idea of us deciding that we didn’t want to show what it means when two boys f*** – it’s preposterous!”
Luca Guadagnino gets annoyed when people call him ‘prudish’
Fantastic Man asked Guadagnino about how people perceive Call Me by Your Name, as well as Chalamet and Hammer’s characters. Perhaps these expectations resulted in some backlash around the film’s sexual nature.
“Maybe,” Guadagnino responded. “The movie is very tragic. People think it’s very romantic, but I think it’s tragic. The honesty of Elio is crushed by the dishonesty of Oliver, and when Elio cries, he cries over the fact he’s being stabbed to death by Oliver’s lies.”
Guadagnino continued: “Which happens to us every day in relationships. It’s not a romantic movie or a vanilla version of gay love, and to read the movie in that way is a bit silly. And ironic.”
Some audiences called Guadagnino a “prudish” artist, which ultimately peeved the filmmaker. Fantastic Man directly asked him if it bothered him to hear that criticism from some fans of the book.
“Well, yes,” Guadagnino said. “Honestly, I made a short film in 1997 called Qui – I was 24 or 25 when I shot it, and I presented it at the Taormina Film Festival – it’s a 16-minute depiction of a blow job. I’m not squeamish. I am not. If I have to show what sex is, I’ll show it.”
