In a previous article, I shared five interesting facts about Call Me by Your Name. This time, I’m continuing the series with five more — plus one extra detail that turned out to be too interesting to leave out.
1. The sex scenes
Luca Guadagnino was criticised by some for not depicting sex scenes in a more explicit way. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the director explained that explicit scenes would have fundamentally changed the tone of the film.
He wanted the audience to rely entirely on the emotional journey of the characters and to experience their first love through intimacy rather than explicit depiction. Guadagnino felt there should be no distinction between Elio and Oliver as characters and Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet as performers — all four, in his view, expressed closeness and intimacy in ways that made explicit scenes unnecessary.
2. Armie Hammer’s fears about the role
Hammer initially feared taking on the role precisely because of this level of vulnerability.
“I had fears. I didn’t think I could make myself so vulnerable, defenceless and raw. I didn’t think that, as an actor, I had that gift, and I was terrified,” he said.
He added that the film’s subtlety made the challenge even greater:
“There are no big things happening in this film. You are given two people and the essence of their relationship. It seemed like such a subtle, finite, beautiful thing — and it scared me. I didn’t think I could do it.”
3. André Aciman makes a cameo
After other actors were unavailable, the production decided to cast the novel’s author, André Aciman, in a small role. He appears as Mounir, a dinner guest and the husband of Isaac, played by producer Peter Spears.
The couple visits Elio’s parents as dinner guests. Their nickname was originally intended to be Laurel and Hardy, but this was changed to Sonny and Cher out of concern that younger audiences might not recognise the former reference.
4. Walter Fasano as an extra
Walter Fasano, who worked as an editor on the film, briefly appears on screen as a DJ during the disco scene. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but one that many viewers only notice on repeat watches.
5. Mafalda was cast almost by chance
Mafalda, the Perlman family’s observant housekeeper, became one of the film’s most quietly memorable characters. The casting of Vanda Capriolo was largely a matter of coincidence.
Guadagnino recalled seeing her riding a bicycle while the crew was scouting locations.
“She didn’t care at all about this group of filmmakers,” he said.
When his assistant tried to stop her, she declined to meet him. Later, Capriolo showed up at an open casting call for locals, and Guadagnino immediately recognised her and offered her the role.
He later cast her again — this time as a witch — in his remake of Suspiria.
+1. The filmmakers changed the year
While the novel is set in 1987, Guadagnino moved the film’s timeline back to 1983. One reason was that by 1987 the AIDS crisis had become far more intense.
Chalamet explained that the earlier setting allowed the film to feel “less intense and a little more utopic.”
Guadagnino has noted that all the films in his trilogy take place earlier than the time in which they were made.
“I’ve never made a historical film, but I like to look at things from a distance,” he said. “It gives a different perspective — and in this case, it’s about a period of Italian life I have very defining memories of.”
Aciman added that setting the story in 1983 gives the film a “suffocating atmosphere.”
Film stills © Sony Pictures.