From showrunner Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), the eight-episode HBO series We Are Who We Are tells the story of two American teenagers who live on a U.S. military base in Italy, exploring all of the messy emotions that come with being 14. When the shy and introverted Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer) meets the bold and confident Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón), he finds someone that he can connect with, in a way unlike anyone else in his life.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, writer/director/executive producer Luca Guadagnino talked about making his first foray into television, how Amy Adams inspired the initial idea for this series, grounding the story in a sense of reality, why the process of discovery and experimentation is something that interests him, what made Fraser and Caitlin such compelling characters, his experience with directing all of the episodes, and whether he’d like to work in TV again. He also talked about his Scarface remake, the next chapter in the Call Me By Your Name saga, and the status of his Blood on the Tracks movie.

Collider: Your work is beautiful and this series is no exception. As a viewer, you can really get lost in the landscapes of what you do and I love that. Why is this your first foray into television? What was it something that you had thought about doing before? What made now the right time?

we-are-who-we-are-jordan-kristine-seamon-as-caitlin-vittoria-bottin-as-sole
Image via HBO

LUCA GUADAGNINO: Honestly, I had never thought about making TV before and I didn’t think it was the right time, or anything like that. I just did it. I had been approached by Lorenzo Mieli, the producer of the show — he came to me, asking if I was interested in doing something around the concept of identity and teenagers. I countered by saying, “Why don’t we do something about behavior in a military base and following some families inside of it?” And he was like, “Why not?” And then, I met with the great Francesca Manieri and Paolo Giordano, the writers of the show, and we spent many, many months working on ideas. They gave me these brilliant scripts that I was immediately enamored to do.

You’ve previously talked about how a conversation you had many years ago with Amy Adams led to this initial idea in your mind of someone at a military base. Why was that something that had become so interesting to you and that stuck with you?

GUADAGNINO: I don’t want to be indiscreet but I had met with Amy a few years ago, in 2010 probably. I always admired her. She’s a phenomenal actress. I love her and I hope one day we will work together. We had this very lovely conversation, and in the conversation, she mentioned that she spent years in Vicenza, which surprised me. And then, she explained that it was because her family is in the military. So, when Lorenzo asked me to think about teenagers in American suburbia, I don’t know why, in an intuitive way, I thought about that conversation with Amy and I had the urgency to watch that place. I said, “Why don’t we try to set it up there?” and he organized a meeting scouting a base. We got permission and once inside, I felt I was right. The intuition was good.

Does she know that she played a role in inspiring this?

GUADAGNINO: No, she doesn’t.

You also purposely set the show in the midst of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. What do you feel that brought to the story you wanted to tell?

we-are-who-we-are-alice-braga-chloe-sevigny
Image via HBO

GUADAGNINO: I think it brought perspective. It grounded the story in a sense of reality that otherwise would have been lost. At the same time, the 2016 election is the end of a phase in American society. It’s the end of our sense of reconciliation and it’s the start of a sense of hatred, which comes up from the really severely deficient politics of this administration, if I may say that. Being Italian, I’m sorry to be stepping here but the truth is under our gazes, every day. That moment was a moment in which people probably didn’t expect that to happen. You’ll see in the soul how the idea of something that was never going to happen actually happens somehow and changes the sense of self, even if unconsciously. I wanted to test that.

It’s clear that you’re a storyteller that’s interested in human behavior. Is that something that’s always been of interest to you and that you’ve been curious about? Are you someone who’s a people watcher?

GUADAGNINO: Yes. Every one of us can express something surprising and riveting.

You’ve said that this is mostly a tale of change. Why is the process of discovery and experimentation something that really interests you, when it comes to stories in film and TV?

GUADAGNINO: Because I need a trigger for telling a story and I don’t understand what the better trigger is to make a story that is not boring, at least to me, than change and someone who is coping with his, hers, their identity and sense of self. I’m subjective. Everyone is subjective. I live my life through my perspective and that’s something that I have to connect, constantly. As a filmmaker, I have to be open to the fact that my characters, like me, have their idea of self and life through the subjectivity they live through. I have the duty to try to inform the storytelling through the perspective of the subjectivity of every one of my characters.

All teenagers go through this process of exploring their gender and sexual identity when they’re trying to learn and figure out who they are. Why were Caitlin and Fraser such interesting characters to you? Why did you want to center this around those two 14-year-olds?

GUADAGNINO: I liked the idea that Fraser is a wise man in the body of a young kid, and at the same time, he’s a really naive, presumptive boy who denies himself the possibility of pain — but pain needs him and it cannot be avoided. At the same time, I liked that Caitlin was somebody who could be empowered by the perspective of someone like Fraser while also giving Fraser a sense of calm and wisdom that he may lack, in terms of his capacity of weight. They are two very wise characters but at the same time, they are very young characters. They go through processes and trial and error, and I like that.

What was your casting process like for this and how do you typically approach auditioning actors? How do you know when you’ve found what you’re looking for?

we-are-who-we-are-jack-dylan-grazer-francesca-scorsese
Image via HBO

GUADAGNINO: When I know, I know, and I hope I’m right. It’s instinctive. I’ve admired Jack [Dylan Grazer] since I saw him in It, Shazam!, and Beautiful Boy, so when I knew he had self-taped himself, I started with him and I never went onward, more or less. And then, I asked him to play the role. Jordan [Kristine Seamón] was part of a very large patch of self-tapes of people, including actors and non-actors. Since I saw her tape, which was mid-way through, I never forgot her and I kept thinking of her, going forward into the analysis of the tapes. For me, that meant that she was the person I wanted to play Caitlin. The last step was to make them meet me and meet one another. That’s how everything simmered together.

When it came to the shoot for the series, was there anything that you set out wanting to do with it or to experiment with that you hadn’t previously felt you could do in film?

GUADAGNINO: Every new enterprise has this idea of experimentation to me. I try, every time I do something, to go for something that I have not tried. Whether I succeed, I don’t know but I try.

The family relationships in this are so interesting. What did you want to specifically explore between Sarah (Chloë Sevigny) and Fraser and their dynamic?

GUADAGNINO: With Fraser and Sarah, you learn through the episodes that they suffer from a great deal of similarity between each other. They’re actually similar. In a way, they contrast because one is really the mirror of the other. At the same time, you learn that Sarah has decided something for the life of Fraser that was not correct, for his side, and that brings a sense of hollow within Fraser, where he’s trying to understand how to fill this hollowness. So, it’s a contrast of two great personalities that are similar but, at the same time, there’s an aim towards fulfilling that sense of self that needs to be fulfilled, and she may not be able to completely fulfill what he desires and needs. That’s affection. They love each other so dearly.

As a director, what do you enjoy most about working with actors, and what was it like to watch Jack Dylan Grazer and Jordan Kristine Seamón bring these characters to life?

GUADAGNINO: I love the way in which they abandoned themselves to the characters, to the narrative, and to the camera. It’s very courageous and bold and beautiful to see these people forget their self-consciousness. I admire that courage and curiosity. I like actors because I like to deal with people who are finding something compassionate in their work, which means finding the truth of a character.

How did you find the experience of directing all eight episodes of this, and tackling so much more material than you can in just one film?

GUADAGNINO: Well, I shot for 94 days, which is not a lot. I hear people do a series of eight episodes like mine in 180 days, which is double. And I do films in 50 days while some people do films in 90 days. I shot it like a feature. It was a longer shoot, but I still shot it like my movies. But that doesn’t mean anything because eventually you give shape to things in a way that has to be met as a show. Having shot all of the material, my editor, Marco Costa, and I have been able to give the show, even if it was conceived as a whole, its identity as an episodic narrative.

we-are-who-we-are-scott-mescudi_0
Image via HBO

After having this experience, would you like to do more TV and would you be interested in returning and continuing to explore these characters, as well?

GUADAGNINO: Yes, to both questions. Yes and yes. As far as we can find those characters’ process and path challenging and inspiring and as long as I can be working with wonderful partners, as I have with this show, I would be happy to come back to this show and I would be happy to do more TV.

Are you somebody who always has ideas percolating in your head?

GUADAGNINO: No, what I have in my mind, constantly, is the idea of trying to find a moment of rest and I never find it, to be honest. I constantly think, “Oh, I should rest.”

You’re set to be doing a remake of Scarface. Is that what you’re planning as your next movie?

GUADAGNINO: I think the project is amazing. I have a great producer in Dylan Clark and a great studio in Universal, so if the gods of cinema want that, I’m in.

Are you still working from the Coen brothers’ script?

GUADAGNINO: It’s a great script. We’re working on that, yes.

Is the Call Me By Your Name sequel something that you still want to and are still planning on doing?

GUADAGNINO: I wouldn’t call it sequel. I would call it a chapter in the chronicles. It’s like Antoine Doinel and (director) François Truffaut, who revisited a character that he loved throughout his entire life, with his partner Jean-Pierre Léaud. I’d love to do that. Let’s see.

Whatever came of your Blood on the Tracks movie?

GUADAGNINO: Sadly, I wanted to do it but unfortunately we didn’t match my idea of how to do it, in terms of budget. Maybe one day. It’s an incredibly beautiful script by an incredibly great writer, Richard LaGravenese, so I really wish to go back to it, one day.

We Are Who We Are airs on Monday nights on HBO.

Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter of Film, TV, and Theme Parks for Collider. You can follow her on Twitter @ChristinaRadish.