Today I bring you five improvised scenes from Call Me by Your Name. Each of them shows how naturally the actors reacted in the moment. At no point does it feel like we are watching improvisation — the scenes blend seamlessly into the film.
It is well known that director Luca Guadagnino often encourages his actors to improvise:
“I enjoy welcoming the unexpected, because that’s the beauty of cinema. It’s about filming the invisible. I try to be intuitive, I try to let things happen and live on the screen. And I had the pleasure of this amazing cast.”
1. The fish scene
It wasn’t a planned moment when Timothée Chalamet imitates the fish’s gape to show Elio’s childish side.
“I love the scene with the fish in the movie, where Anchise brings over the fish and I make the face for them. It’s so unabashed and not cynical.”
2. “Tregua?”
In this scene, Timothée improvised the hand gesture. Luca liked it so much that he asked him to add a single word in Italian: “Tregua?”
3. The necklace scene
Luca Guadagnino reportedly called Timothée a “genius” when he put his necklace in his mouth while swimming.
“Genius, genius!!!”
The moment was improvised.
4. The midnight door scene
Elio’s reaction to the door slamming in the middle of the night — and Oliver’s small giggle in response — was not scripted, yet it remains one of the most memorable moments.
5. Oliver kisses Elio’s foot
This was an improvisation on Armie Hammer’s part. As Oliver kisses Elio’s foot, he communicates his feelings without saying a word.
If you watch Timothée closely, you can see a brief moment of confusion as he reacts in real time.
The script reveals that there was nothing written about Oliver kissing Elio’s foot.
After giving Elio a foot rub, Oliver was supposed to help him up.
This was probably the deleted scene:
You can watch these scenes and more in this video.