In 2017, Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer co-starred in the film Call Me By Your Name. At the time, it seemed as though both were actors on the rise. For Chalamet, that’s been true; for Hammer, however, accusations of rape and cannibalism have (understandably) derailed his career. And so it’s not terribly surprising that, in a recent Time interview, Chalamet was asked about his onetime costar.
Sam Lansky, the author of the Time article, wrote that Chalamet “demurs” when posed that question. “I totally get why you’re asking that, but it’s a question worthy of a larger conversation, and I don’t want to give you a partial response,” Chalamet told him.
There are a number of ways to interpret Chalamet’s statement, from taking it at face value to wondering if it’s more a case of equivocation. In an article at Jezebel, Ashley Reese argued that asking the question itself felt fraught. “Chalamet is a talented actor, but it’s hard to believe that anything he’d say on the issue would do anything to help Hammer’s alleged victims or turn the tide on our national conversation on sexual violence,” Reese wrote.
Chalamet has been critical of other people he’s worked with on films — notably, Woody Allen, with whom he made A Rainy Day in New York, a decision Chalamet later publicly regretted. But (as Reese notes at Jezebel) the two situations aren’t all that comparable. If Chalamet announces that his next project finds him re-teaming with Hammer, that would make things very different — but so far, that hasn’t been the case.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.