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Luca Guadagnino is looking at another hit thanks to his mostly well-reviewed film Bones And All. Much Like Call Me By Your Name, the horror coming-of-age film stars Timothee Chalamet. But this time he's opposite Waves and Lost In Space star, Taylor Russell.
Given the subject matter of Bones and All, it's unlikely that the acclaimed Italian director has much in common with his protagonist. But this wasn't the case with Call Me By Your Name, which nearly earned a sequel with both stars returning prior to Armie Hammer's very public scandals.
There's no doubt that the canceled sequel would've continued the heartbreaking story of Elio and Oliver, which was based on "Call Me By Your Name" and "Find Me" by author André Aciman. Elements of this emotionally rich story were very, very similar to Luca.
In an interview with Vulture, Luca explained just how similar his experience as a teenager was to that of Timothee Chalamet's Elio.
Luca Guadagnino Pushed The Boundaries When He Was Young
Much of Elio's life at 17 was something Luca Guadagnino could relate to. Not only were they both living in Italy, but they were both closeted gay men. On top of this, they both weren't afraid of speaking their minds. They just did it in different ways.
"I was a very lonely, skinny, melancholic visionaire [at 17]," Luca told Vulture, during an interview long before Armie Hammer's scandals were exposed and the sequel was canceled. "I was in Palermo [Italy], and I was really invested in pushing the envelope. I remember at that age, I convinced the principal of my school to be the director of the play at the end of the year. I did Ionesco, and it was crazy. It was insane!"
"The title of the piece was Excessive in Extremis. And it fortified me because it was a catastrophe of sorts. There was not much of an audience, and to make something so personal, motivated by the impulse of doing something strong no matter what, and then to get the reception we got."
Luca went on to explain that the the principal was absolutely furious when she saw the play he had created.
"Oh, the fury of the principal when she saw the thing! You know, when I went to [the Venice Film Festival] years later with The Protagonists and there was booing in the movie theater, I thought, I don’t care. I already got my boos at 17. I trained myself for that, I would say."
Luca Guadagnino And Timothee Chalamet's Elio In Call Me By Your Name Both Got Their Hearts Broken
While both Elio and Luca were "lonely" at the age of 17, the director had a very different energy about him.
"I was not like Elio. Elio jumps on the dance floor and is divine, but I wasn’t that kid. I was sitting in the corner, looking at people dancing. It was shyness, it was maybe embarrassment, but also I think it was the great position of control."
As said by the journalist at Vulture, Luca was "shy" in his personal life, but "bold" in his art.
He wasn't so bold with women, however. And this was another area where he and Elio differed. In the movie, Elio does experiment with women before ultimately coming out of the closet.
"I’ve never been with girls, honestly. I regret that," Luca explained. While he also knew he was attracted to men, he didn't go after any until he was 22. He claims this is because he was "too cerebral" and spent little time thinking about love and s*x.
However, he was struck by feelings for someone who couldn't love him back, just like Elio.
"I made a difficult and stupid choice at that age of falling in love with my best friend, who was straight. Later, I met this guy when I was 22, and the second we had intercourse, I didn’t want to be with him anymore, and I left."
"I don’t know [why I left]. I felt depressed. I like sharing things, I like a community, I like to be with my friends and get to know new people, but when you’re 22 in Palermo and you get this young man and you feel the emotion for the first time of this physical encounter, it excludes everything," Luca explained.
"You’re not so sure if you can go to your friends and say, 'That’s the boy I’m dating.' People could not say that easily in 1988 in Palermo. I had to leave this encounter with him and only him. I had to learn in time to bridge my personal feelings and emotional encounters with my life as part of a community."
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