You know in The Grinch how his heart grew three sizes in one day?

Well, that’s what it’s like when you read André Aciman’s novel ‘Call Me by Your Name’ or watch the 2017 film of the same name. We managed to get some time to talk to Andre about the film adaptation of his work, his appearance in it, and his IRL father's best advice:

Where did this incredible story start for you?

Oh, it started when I realised I was not going to go to Italy that year and I wanted a house in Italy and so I developed a story about a house in Italy and it was going to stop there, it was going to be a few paragraphs, I was going to have fun and that was going to be the end of it. Except that it blossomed into something far, far bigger and I let it go, I followed the story. The story essentially wrote itself. I was just an agent and next thing I know it was done in three and a half months.

Wow. That's relatively quick for a novel.

It is very quick but it was extremely fascinating, exciting, stirring and I didn't want to stop.

Why do you think it's resonating with so many people and has been for 10 years now?

I think initially it was a love story and I think the father's speech was a very prominent moment for a lot of readers because it's the kind of speech they wish their father had had with them when they were trying to come out. A lot of people wrote to me about that but then 10 years later, out comes the film and it's a different population all together. It's a younger crowd; far, far younger of both sexes and I think it is a story about love seen from the inside. Here you have one person incubating the love forever, so long, and not saying anything. And you watch it sort of blossom, or whatever you want to call it, erupting gradually and slowly. And a lot of people say 'yeah that's me, that's how I do it, that's how I'm totally embarrassed of desiring somebody else' and suddenly there's somebody else writing that very story that is mine. And I think that's how it resonates today.

I found myself literally screaming at the book like just going "have sex!" It was killing me so that restraint is impressive.

It is a restraint. It is on part of the author because I wanted them to do it right away. But I think we all go through periods in our lives where we wish we could say something or do something or the might happen and sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it won't, and that's us too.

You've spoken before about some of the responses you've received since the book was published. Other than that idea of seeing love from the inside, why do you think that this book has touched so many people?

That's a very good question. I don't know because I don't understand. I'm the author of the story and I'm supposed to understand everything and to feel everything and I don't. But I think it is the story of how two individuals are eventually going to speak. They're not going to go to bed and not speak, they need to speak. And all of us are terrified of that moment when we basically have to put it out there. It's not going to be an easy kiss, it's not going to be drinking or drugs or whatever that's going to induce it. You have to take the courage, find the courage and say something.

Andre, how did you feel when you first saw the film because famously it's always very anxious for authors to see their work turned into movies?

Oh, authors are difficult people and they're impossible. You have to realise that when somebody's going to take your story and make a film out of it, they're going to make changes and they're going to have to make adaptations and sometimes the adaptations are going to take a different direction. So long as the result is the same, you have to accept it and I did that from the very beginning. And when I saw the film I realised this is exactly my story. I mean, yeah, there's been some cuts and things, some changes were made but they've produced the same exact effect — that at the end of the film and the end of the book there's a moment of absolute painful realisation that is also a form of enchantment. You're happy and yet you're sad and it happens in both the film and in the book.

You are actually in the film itself. What was it like stepping onto the set? This kind of realisation of something you created.

I said I'm not going to do this, I was battling the idea. I thought I deserved an Oscar, okay [laughs]. But they said you can say anything you want in whatever language you please, and so I did and it was very relaxing and it was enjoyable and even when they had me redo the thing again and again I enjoyed it.

It's had a few sort of knock on effects into pop culture, the film. In two ways; as you mentioned before, the father's speech which is a really incredible moment of the film. I've seen it twice and wept both times during it. But everybody wants Michael Stuhlbarg to be their dad now. I know Frank Ocean even tweeted about it saying "Michael Stuhlbarg is my new dad now and that's that". But also Timothée Chalamet is every girls dream boyfriend. Is that something that you were aware of when you first saw the film, you were like 'Oh I can see how this is gonna go'?

Oh no, I realised that Michael Stuhlbarg had done a perfect job and he did it so well he had almost a film of tears in his eyes, he was moved and it was perfect. As for Chalamet, I love him, he's a wonderful person. As a human being he's wonderful but I didn't understand what was going to happen with him and the girls; I mean, he's all over the place. And he's a wonderful guy and so is Armie, they're both amazing people.

Can I ask a bit about the father's speech. When you were writing that what were you channelling, what were you focusing on?

I think I was focusing on if my father had given me that speech, he would have said exactly that sort of thing. My father was that kind of person, he was totally open-minded, there was not a taboo in his life that he hadn't already practiced. He was stuffy with many things. I mean, you had to have good behaviour but he always said to me 'once your clothes are off everything is okay. There's no inhibition once you're naked.' And that helped me a great deal because I realised that however polite you have to be before, once your clothes are off, go all the way, do whatever you please, don't hurt anybody, but it's all okay. And so I was channelling my dad.

I feel like I've just been the recipient of your dad's speech. That's beautiful advice.

Isn't it? It makes perfect sense.

Did he always give you excellent advice like that?

Always. The problem with me was that I never rebelled against my dad because everything he said made perfect sense. You'd have to be an idiot to not go along with what he said. He had experience, he had done everything, and there was not a thing he was ashamed of.