Despite their sizzling on-screen chemistry, Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer had never met prior to filming their unstoppable new film, “Call Me By Your Name.”
Appearing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” Wednesday, the two actors recalled their early rehearsals for the gay romance, which reportedly earned the year’s highest per-theater average opening in limited release over Thanksgiving weekend.
On the first day, Hammer said, director Luca Guadagnino asked the men to open the script to a random page and start acting out the scene. It just so happened to be a scene in which Hammer’s character, Oliver, starts making out with Chalamet’s Elio.
“We’re making out, and making out, and making out, and no one’s saying stop,” Hammer said. “All of a sudden, we both kind of stop and look, and Luca had just walked away and left us right there, rolling around in the grass.”
He then quipped, “It was a bit of an icebreaker.”
Chalamet and Hammer’s preparation process certainly worked, as their performances got an enthusiastic thumbs-up from DeGeneres herself, who said “Call Me By Your Name” was her favorite movie of the year.
The host had special praise for Chalamet, a breakout star this year thanks to turns in both “Call Me By Your Name” and “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age tale starring Saoirse Ronan.
“You are so sexy in this movie,” DeGeneres gushed. “Girls are gonna crazy, guys are gonna go crazy ... you’re amazing.”
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