Armie Hammer didn’t know if he was capable of giving a ‘tender performance’
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 relies 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.”
[From Out Magazine]
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:
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Cover courtesy of Out, photo courtesy of Getty.
Source: Armie Hammer didn’t know if he was capable of giving a ‘tender performance’
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