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Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet may be the two stars of "Call Me By Your Name," but Michael Stuhlbarg nearly steals the movie with one incredibly powerful monologue near the film's conclusion.
The actor, who is also starring in "The Shape of Water" and "The Post" this season, plays the middle-aged professor who invites an American grad student to spend the summer in his Italian home to assist him with research. The young man, Oliver (Hammer), finds love with Mr. Perlman's 17-year-old son Elio (Chalamet).
Without getting into heavy spoiler territory, Mr. Perlman delivers a speech about love to his son that every child should hear and is sure to leave audiences in tears. Speaking with TooFab at the AFI Fest screening of the movie in Los Angeles, Stuhlbarg opened up about how he prepared for the moment, which fortunately came later in the filming process.
"I was really lucky in that we shot this movie in chronological order," Stuhlbarg explained. "Rarely do we get that opportunity because sometimes you shoot the end before you shoot the beginning. So in this case, I got to watch Timothée and Armie get to know each other over the course of time that we were in this really beautiful place and I grew to care about how much of themselves they were putting out there and admiring them as really talented actors and by the time it came time to shoot that scene, it had gone around my mind and in my heart over and over in so many different ways and I felt very ready. It was a special day."
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View Story"There's some interesting moments in it without giving much away, but it's a father opening his heart to his son and sort of saying in some ways, 'I sort of envy what you're going through. I never had what you're feeling,'" he added. "He also wants his son to feel what he's going through and not to push it away. It's just all kinds of wonderful sentiments that I got to say."
And just like his character, Stuhlbarg can relate to the poetic words.
"You know, life is weird. We feel things all the time and we often have to cover those things that we feel and what a lovely example of somebody saying, 'Don't do that,'" he sad. "Life is beautiful and strange and if you're lucky enough to feel something deeply, don't push it away."
"Call Me By Your Name" is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles.
