Random Things You Didn't Know About Call Me By Your Name (And How Shia LaBeouf Almost Starred In It) (10 items)

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  (#1) The Infamous "Peach" Scene Was Tested In Real Life

  Minor spoiler warning:

  There is no way you can talk about this movie without mentioning the "peach" scene. In the scene, Timothée Chalamet's characters masturbates into a pitted peach.  The scene is taken straight out of the book, but the director was torn when deciding whether or not to include it in the movie... until he actually did it himself. Guadagnino admitted this himself in an interview. "I was struggling with the possibility that you can masturbate yourself with such a fruit. So, I grabbed a peach and I tried, and I have to say - it works."

  If you think that's crazy, it turns out that Guadagnino was not the only person involved with the film to try out this crazy stunt in real life. Chalamet had already performed the deed himself to test out if it was even possible, and he came to the same conclusion as Guadagnino.
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  (#2) The Lead Actors Only Rehearsed One Time, And It Was Super Weird

  Unlike most films, lead actors Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet barely rehearsed before the film started shooting. In fact, they only attended one rehearsal with director Luca Guadagnino. The two leads picked a scene at random out of the script to play out at the shooting location, and the scene just happened to be one with absolutely no dialogue and a whole lot of making out. Guadagnino encouraged them to follow the script and roll around in the grass while kissing. The two actors made out for a long time before realizing that Guadagnino had left the rehearsal entirely without telling them to stop. 
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  (#3) Shia LaBeouf

  • Actor

  While the film stars Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet as two young lovers in Italy, they weren't the first casting choices; Shia LaBeouf was originally tapped to appear in the movie. LaBeouf had flown to New York in order to read for the part, but complications with the actor caused some concern within the production. According to the film's screenwriter, James Ivory, the production company was worried that LaBeouf's offscreen antics would make him a liability to the shoot. Greta Scaachi was also originally supposed to appear in the film but was unexpectedly dropped from the project after she thought she had the role. 
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  (#4) The Film Received A Record Breaking Standing Ovation

  It would be an understatement to say that Call Me by Your Name's premiere at the New York Film Festival went well. It completely transfixed the audience and as the film's credits began to play, the crowd stood up and applauded the film with gusto. That applause would go on to be the longest standing ovation ever recorded for a film playing at the New York Film Festival. It lasted a full ten minutes after the movie had concluded and most likely caused everyone in attendance to some minor hand pain. 
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  (#5) Armie Hammer

  • Actor

  The heart of Call Me by Your Name is a love story between two young men played by Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. Hammer had some difficulty feeling comfortable while shooting certain scenes in the film. No, it wasn't the gay sex scenes that made the straight actor uncomfortable. According to an interview, Hammer is incredibly self-conscious about his dancing abilities: “When I dance I think, You’re really sh*t at this, and everyone around you knows it because you’re the tallest guy on the dance floor and you stick out like a sore thumb.”

  Hammer had to brave one of his greatest fears to film a pivotal scene in which is character cuts loose on a dance floor. Hammer went on to say about his experience, “This is hell. Can we switch this for more nude scenes, please?”
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  (#6) Luca Guadagnino Wants To Make A Sequel

  By no measures is Call Me by Your Name the type of film that you'd expect to be franchised, but director Luca Guadagnino is itching to make a sequel. While the book itself doesn't have a second part, it does mention events that take place 15 years after the main story. The original cut of the film was roughly four hours long, and Guadagnino wants to use some of the unused scenes as fodder for a potential sequel. It's not clear whether or not the sequel would follow the same story progression the novel lays out, but any potential sequel would like have Hammer and Chalamet reprising their roles. 
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  (#7) Sufjan Stevens

  • Band/Musician

  Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens might seem like an odd choice to narrate a feature film, and even Stevens himself agreed with that point. When director Luca Guadagnino approached the musician about potentially narrating Call Me by Your Name, Stevens politely declined the offer.

  "He initially asked me to be the voice of the older Elio; to contribute that voiceover," Stevens said in an interview with Deadline. He felt that adding narration to the film was unnecessary, but he did agree to write some original music for the soundtrack. He ended up recording two original pieces and one cover for the film. 
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  (#8) This Film Is The Final Chapter Of Guadagnino's "Desire Trilogy"

  While Call Me by Your Name is a standalone film, it is thematically linked to two previous films by Luca Guadagnino. The trio of movies is known as the "Desire" trilogy, as each deals with temptation and lust as core themes. The first film in the series, I Am Love, was released in 2010 and received an Academy Award nomination for costume design. It was followed up by A Bigger Splash in 2015, and both films starred Tilda Swinton as a woman tempted by younger men. Call Me by Your Name is the capstone to this trilogy and the only one in the series not to feature Swinton. 
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  (#9) Timothée Chalamet

  • Actor

  Some actors take commitment to a role to the next level, and Timothée Chalamet is one of those actors. For his role in the film, Chalamet got a tutor and learned how to speak Italian. He met with the tutor every single day leading up to the shoot, but he wasn't starting from scratch. Chalamet is fluent in French, another romance language, and he says that his knowledge of French helped him when it came to learning Italian. Chalamet regrets not focusing more on the phonetics of the language during his tutelage. He also learned how to play the piano and guitar for the film. 
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  (#10) The Film Is Based On A Critically Acclaimed Novel Of The Same Name

  Like many great films, Call Me by Your Name did not start as a script. The film is based on the acclaimed novel by author André Aciman. The novel was originally released in 2007, and the film adaptation remains faithful to much of the story. There are some key differences, however. The novel features narration in the form of Elio's internal monologue. The filmmakers decided against including the narration, choosing instead to portray the events through images and emotion rather than words.

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