14 DAY TRIAL // One of Leonardo DiCaprio’s most anticipated projects right now is “Hoover,” directed by Clint Eastwood, in which he plays the controversial FBI director. Armie Hammer plays his lover and, in a recent interview, compares kissing Leo to shooting a machine gun.
Much has been written and even more speculated about how the film will handle the presumed romance between Hoover and his protégé Clyde Tolson, with Armie himself revealing a while back that the movie will state clearly that the two were romantically involved.
Also then, he revealed that there would be some kissing between the two, so as to drive the message home: the two were lovers.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight Canada, Hammer points out that said kissing scenes should not distract from what’s important: Hoover’s story.
In fact, he says, he doesn’t even fully understand what’s with all the hype about it. When pressed for details, he says kissing Leo was an experience similar to that of shooting a machine gun: he had no idea what to do, but had to pretend that he did.
“When I signed on to do the movie, she was thrilled that I just didn’t have to kiss another woman!” Armie says of how his girlfriend reacted to the news that he’d be kissing another man in the film.
“It’s the same kind of thing as if you walk onto a set and they hand you a machine gun and [say], ‘Shoot this like you know what you’re doing’ – you can’t grab that thing and go, ‘uh…’ – you kind of have to go, ‘Okay, I know what I’m doing,’ and you’ve just got to go for it,” the actor says of the kiss.
“It wasn’t that weird – I have never kissed a guy – it’s not something I’m going to do in my private life, but at the end of it I was, like, man, there is a lot of weird hype,” Armie adds.
Working with DiCaprio was a pleasure, but Hammer stresses that having to kiss him didn’t instantly turn the two of them into inseparable BFFs; each went about his way after shooting was done.
“You always have a special relationship with someone when you finish a movie with them, but… he’s got a bunch of stuff he is doing after that, I’ve got a bunch of stuff I’m doing. We didn’t start a book club together or anything,” Hammer explains.