Armie Hammer believes he is "working through the stigma" of playing gay characters as a straight actor.
Armie Hammer
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 as a masturbation tool and passes it to his older lover who places it to his lips.
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."
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