page_title: Call Me by Your Name (film)
section_title: Casting
hierarchical_section_title: Call Me by Your Name (film) / Production / Casting
caption_attribution_description: English: Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet at the press conference of the film Call Me by Your Name at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival
context_page_description: Call Me by Your Name is a 2017 coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino. Its screenplay, by James Ivory, who also co-produced, is based on the 2007 novel of the same name by André Aciman. The film is the final installment in Guadagnino's thematic "Desire" trilogy, after I Am Love, and A Bigger Splash. Set in 1983 in northern Italy, Call Me by Your Name chronicles the romantic relationship between a 17-year-old, Elio Perlman, and Oliver, a 24-year-old graduate-student assistant to Elio's father, an archaeology professor. The film also stars the French actresses Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, and Victoire Du Bois.
  Development began in 2007 when producers Peter Spears and Howard Rosenman optioned the rights to Aciman's novel. Ivory had been chosen to co-direct with Guadagnino, but stepped down in 2016. Guadagnino had joined the project as a location scout, and eventually became sole director, and co-producer. Call Me by Your Name was financed by several international companies, and its principal photography took place mainly in the city and comune of Crema, Lombardy, between May and June 2016.
context_section_description: In 2015, Shia LaBeouf and Greta Scacchi were reportedly set to be cast in the film. In September 2016, Ivory confirmed they were no longer involved in the project. Ivory said he got along with LaBeouf, who had read for the film in New York City, but the production company later felt the actor was unsuitable after his "various troubles". Ivory thought Scacchi and LaBeouf read well together and could have made it into the film, but the company disagreed.
  Guadagnino was impressed by Armie Hammer's performance in The Social Network (2010), describing him as a "sophisticated actor, with a great range". Hammer almost turned down the role of Oliver after reading the draft script because it contained nudity, saying, "There's a lot of stuff here that I've never done on film before. But there's no way I can't do this [film], mostly because it scares me so much." Hammer had previously played LGBT characters in J. Edgar (2011) and Final Portrait (2017).
  In 2013, Swardstrom—Spears' husband and agent—introduced Chalamet to Guadagnino, who immediately felt the actor had "the ambition, the intelligence, the sensitivity, the naivety, and the artistry" to play Elio. Chalamet had already read Aciman's novel and described it as "a window into a young person". His character, 17-year-old Elio, is fluent in three languages: English, French and Italian. Upon his arrival in Italy, Chalamet—who already spoke French fluently and had played piano and guitar for years—prepared for his role with a schedule of daily lessons in Italian, gym workouts three times a week, and by working with composer Roberto Solci.
  Michael Stuhlbarg, who was cast as Elio's father, Mr. Perlman, did not read the book until he had already joined the production. He found the script moving and described Mr. Perlman as having a "sense of generosity and love and understanding". Esther Garrel was contacted by Guadagnino when he was in Paris for the promotion of A Bigger Splash. Garrel was cast as Marzia without any formal audition, and she chose not to read the book before shooting. Towards the end of the film, Marzia asks Elio, "Friend for life?"—a line taken from J'entends plus la guitare (1991), directed by the actress's father, Philippe Garrel. "I like the idea of talking virtually with Philippe Garrel through her," Guadagnino said. During shooting, Garrel spoke French with Chalamet on set and watched the American sitcom Friends with English subtitles to improve her English.
  Guadagnino chose Amira Casar, whom he had known for twenty years, for the role of Elio's mother Annella. In an interview with French magazine Télérama, Guadagnino expressed his admiration of Casar's "sense of transgression" and called her "the most audacious" in European art cinema. Casting director Stella Savino met Vanda Capriolo when she was bicycling in the countryside. Capriolo, who was not an actor, was chosen to play Mafalda, the Perlmans' maid. Aciman and Spears also appear briefly in cameo roles as Mounir and Isaac, an openly gay couple who attend a dinner party. Aciman was asked to be in the movie after actors became unavailable. "It was a last-minute decision," Spears recalled, "Andrė turns out to be a phenomenal actor! So comfortable, not nervous at all. His wife was sitting there and said, 'I had no idea!'" In dialogue, the characters switch between English, French, Italian, and in one scene Annella reads a German translation of 16th-century French literature.
  Hammer and Chalamet both signed contracts prohibiting the film from showing them with full-frontal nudity. Ivory, whose original screenplay contained nudity, was dismayed by the decision. He criticized what he saw as an "American" attitude, saying, "Nobody seems to care that much or be shocked about a totally naked woman. It's the men." Guadagnino picked actors based on their performances and chemistry rather than on their sexuality. He said, "The idea that you have to cast only someone who has a certain set of skills, and worse, a certain gender identity in any role: that's oppressive to me."
caption: Hammer and Chalamet during the press conference for Call Me by Your Name at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D5300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2017:02:18 17:59:12", "Image ExifOffset": "220", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1030", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7845", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "560", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:02:13 15:09:34", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:02:13 15:09:34", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "5906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "105", "EXIF SubSecTime": "40", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "40", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "40", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1333", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "83841555/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "83841555/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "157", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "4513105", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 105, 7/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "18.0-105.0 mm f/3.5-5.6"}