There are two American actors in “Call Me by Your Name.” Armie Hammer has said he was nervous about all the nudity that was originally in the script.Ĭertainly in my screenplay there was all sorts of nudity. But in those days - in the ’80’s and these were all British actors - they didn’t give a damn! For instance, if you were to make that film today and you had American actors, it would be in their contract that they could not be shown nude. And I’ve felt that way about some other films as well, particularly “ Maurice.” That said, I’m glad we broke some sort of barrier. There are moments when I think the story demands it, and if you don’t get it you feel sort of short-changed. I just figured, “Let it be.” I’ve always thought that about nudity. So it wasn’t a deliberate attempt to do something different. I had no idea that it was such a comical scene as well.
I had no idea that scene would get so much attention. We’d never really been bound by the studio requirements on things like nudity, so I said, “Let’s just do it, and what is seen is seen.” It was not even a “yes or no” decision. My idea of the Sacred Lakes sequence, as it is called, was that it really had to be as Forster described it.
