In a previous article, I brought you 5 interesting facts from the film Call Me by Your Name. I’m continuing this series with 5 more exclusives. This time, you can also read a bonus that turned out to be so exciting that I couldn’t miss it.

 

Let’s see #1: The sex scene

Luca Guadagnino was criticised for not depicting sex scenes in a more explicit way. The director told The Hollywood Reporter he was not interested in including explicit sex scenes in the film because the tone would have been very different from what he was looking for. He wanted the audience to completely rely on the emotional journey of these people and feel first love. He did not want the audience to find any difference or discrimination toward these characters. He thinks that Oliver and Elio and Armie and Timothée, the four of them displayed a very strong intimacy and closeness in so many ways and it was enough.

#2. Armie Hammer’s fears about the role

That closeness that made Hammer initially apprehensive about the role. “I did have apprehensions. I didn’t think I could make myself that vulnerable and that exposed and that raw. I didn’t think I had the chops as an actor, and I was terrified,” said Hammer. “There is no big thing happening in this movie. It’s two people and
the core of their relationship… It just seemed like such a subtle, finite, beautiful thing that had to happen and it scared me. I just didn’t think I could do it.”

#3 . Author André Aciman makes a cameo in the Movie

After other actors weren’t available, the production opted to have the book’s author, André Aciman, play Mounir, a dinner guest and husband to a character named Isaac, played by producer Peter Spears. The gay couple appear as dinner guests visiting Elio’s parents. The couple were originally intended to be nicknamed Laurel and Hardy, but a creative decision was made to change this to Sonny and Cher for fear younger audiences would not know who Laurel and Hardy were.

Isaac és Mounir

#4. Walter Fasano as an extra

Walter Fasano, who worked as an editor on the film, is seen as a DJ in the disco scene for a few moments.

Walter Fasano

#5. Mafalda was cast pretty much on the spot

Mafalda, the Perlman family’s observant housekeeper, ends up being one of the most unexpectedly foundational characters in Call Me By Your Name. Surprisingly,
the casting of Vanda Capriolo ultimately came down to fate. “We were looking for the place where Elio and Oliver go through with their bikes on their way to the first kiss, and I was in this field,” says Guadagnino. “And then I see this lady biking… she doesn’t care about this bunch of filmmakers.” He sent his assistant running after her, but Vanda declined to meet the director.

She then showed up to an open casting call for locals, and he cast her immediately upon recognizing her. In fact, Guadagnino loved Vanda’s performance so much that he cast her as a witch in his remake of the 1977 Italian horror film Suspiria.

+1. The filmmakers changed the year the film takes place in because or AIDS and ’80s music

The novel takes place in 1987, but Guadagnino changed it to 1983 for the film partially because the world was already far deeper into the AIDS crisis by 1987 than by 1983. As Chalamet described it, the time change made it so the film “wasn’t as intense and could be a little more utopic.”

“I’ve never made a historical film, but I like the idea of having a little distance of time to provide perspective,” says Guadagnino. “And in this case, it’s about a moment in Italian life that I have very strong memories for.” Says Aciman: “The fact that you know it takes place in ‘83 gives the film the touch of an elegy.- Aciman adds.

 

Sources:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/531187/10-fascinating-facts-about-call-me-your-name

https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/88nx53/call-me-by-your-name-sequel-cancelled