On Monday, actor Armie Hammer stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote Boots Riley’s surreal Sorry to Bother You and his new play Straight White Men. Call Me By Your Name came up. Specifically, Call Me By Your Name fans came up, as the performer confessed to the talk show host that they were presenting him with a very specific autograph request whenever they came to see him perform on Broadway. They want him to sign peaches.
“It’s very funny cause the people that come, you can really kind of spot them right away,” Hammer told Colbert. “The biggest dead giveaway is they will normally hand me a peach. I get handed at least a peach or two [at] almost every stage door.” Ever mindful of the fact that broadcast television must answer to Federal Communications Commission guidelines, but always ready for a comedic moment, Colbert asked the audience, “Does anyone not understand that reference? Well, watch the film.” (In Call Me By Your Name, Timothée Chalamet’s character Elio… yeah, Colbert’s right. Watch the film.)
Hammer then explained the matter as much as the censors would allow him to:
“The first time someone handed me a peach, I was like, ‘Oh, thanks.’ And they go, ‘No no no, that’s not for you. Will you sign it for me?’ I was like, ‘You want me to sign a peach?’ They were like, ‘Yeah.’ I’ve got a sharpie in my hand, so I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So I signed it, and as hand it back I go, ‘You’re not going to eat that, are you? I mean, there’s sharpie on it!’ And they go, ‘No,’ which made me feel better about [them] not eating it because it had sharpie, but then I was like, ‘So what are you going to do with it?'”
The actor avoids providing any details about one of the possible answers to his question, instead joking that “there’s obviously something they can do with it that would be more disturbing.” Instead, he expresses concern at the prospect of peaches bearing his signature rotting in people’s home and attracting flies.
