Armie Hammer believes he is "working through the stigma" of playing gay characters as a straight actor.
The 31-year-old star has appeared is three movies in which he plays gay characters – Clyde Tolson in ‘J Edgar’, James Lord in ‘Final Portrait’ and now Oliver in ‘Call Me By Your Name’ – but despite being straight himself, Hammer hasn’t been told to avoid these roles.
Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Hammer said: "None of my team has ever said ‘I don’t know if it’s gonna be good for you to play a gay character’.
"So I can only assume we are working our way through that stigma."
The new coming-of-age movie – which is directed by Luca Guadagnino – follows teenager Elio (Timothee Chalamet) who builds a relationship with his older professor Oliver (Hammer).
In one particular scene, Elio uses a peach to perform a sexual act.
Although Hammer has starred as gay characters before, the role of Oliver was something he found difficult and had to reach a "certain level of understanding" with the filmmaker.
He said: "I’m not sure I could have done it unless I’d reached a certain level of understanding with Luca.
"It was really a matter of him beating it all into my thick skull. There were all these kinks and fetishes that I didn’t understand.
"Like, why does he want to eat the peach? Why does he say ‘call me by your name and I’ll call you by mine?’
"If I didn’t understand those things, I wouldn’t have the character."
Armie Hammer is happy playing gay characters
