Call Me By Your Name star Timothée Chalamet opens up about ‘thrilling’ peach scene
By Will Stroude
Call Me By Your Name
has rightly won plaudits for its enthralling depiction of first love, but there’s one scene in particular that’s had audiences talking.
Luca Guadagnino’s film adaptation of André Aciman’s 2007 novel tells the story of 17-year-old high school student Elio (Timothée Chalamet), who falls in love with 24-year-old graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) in Italy during the summer of 1983 – and the film has stayed true to the source material by including an, erm, amorous encounter between Elio and a peach.
In an admission that paints quite the mental picture, Guadagnino has already revealed that both he and Chalamet tried to recreate the scene at home themselves prior to filming to see whether the, erm, exact mechanics involved worked, and now Chalamet has opened up himself about the “thrilling” scene.
The 21-year-old actor told GQ: “[Guadagnino] came up to me a couple of weeks before the peach scene and told me he tried it and that it worked. Then it was all systems go!”
He continued: “It’s just thrilling because it’s organic—it feels not like a marketing gimmick but something that people are genuinely curious to see—if they have not already partaken in that wonderfully sensual experience.
“What made André’s book so powerful and new—to me—was this ambiguity it had to any sort of strict views on sexuality. The peach scene really is this idea in the film that everything is of the earth. Life is just organic. I don’t know what side of the peach debate that puts me on, but…”
Chalamet, who has been tipped for major awards glory for his role at the precocious young Elio, added that despite the headline-grabbing nature of the peach incident, Call Me By Your Name’s more racy moments never felt gratuitous.
“Plainly speaking, and just from a visual standpoint, Luca always makes his actors look nice,” the former Homeland star said.
“Secondly, these scenes, they’re not exploitative or salacious. It is not a sex film—though there are very well-received sex films—but the lovemaking and the peach scene is in service to the story.”
Call Me By Your Name is in UK cinemas now and hits US cinemas this Friday (November 24).
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