Since director Luca Guadagnino brought André Aciman’s queer coming-of-age novel Call Me By Your Name to the screen in 2017 starring Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, it’s safe to say that it thrust Aciman’s literary talent into the spotlight. Eight years on, Netflix is now lined up to produce a limited series based on Aciman’s 2017 novel Enigma Variations with Jeremy Allen White of FX’s The Bear – one of the best Hulu shows – as the lead role.
Being a lesser-known novel than Call Me By Your Name, Enigma Variations adopts similar themes of queer romance focussing on the life of Paul (White), a bisexual man who reflects on his romantic encounters with both men and women over the course of a few decades. Divided into brief accounts, Paul looks back on the significant chapters in his romantic life starting with the years of his adolescence, and pieces them together to create one moving narrative of self-discovery.
As it stands, the limited series is currently in its early stages of development and, therefore, has no official release date. Nonetheless, it will mark the second book-to-screen adaptation of one of Aciman’s novels, and will be the first to be produced under the name of one of the best streaming services. With a name as big as Netflix’s attached to the project, it’s only appropriate that the streamer has enlisted the help of established writers and producers. This includes Amanda Kate Shuman, writer of one of the best Prime Video shows The Wheel of Time and Oliver Hermanus (Moffie) who will executive produce the series with Aciman and Jeremy Allen White himself.
There’s no doubt that Jeremy Allen White is emerging as one of the biggest stars in entertainment right now following his Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning performances in The Bear, as well as his early appearances in shows such as Shameless (2011-2021). But aside from Netflix’s adaptation of Enigma Variations, White has other exciting projects in the works from the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere and the Star Wars movie The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is expected to arrive in 2026. With a filmography as diverse as this, it’s planted a seed of intrigue within me and I can’t wait to see how White will approach playing a character from an Andre Aciman novel – particularly a queer one.
Can Jeremy Allen White rise to the challenge?
There’s nothing I love to see more than an actor taking on a role that sits on the opposite end of the spectrum to the ones we heavily associate with them playing. Take Daniel Craig, for example. I had never really paid a lot of attention to the actor because I had always associated him with James Bond and the archetype of a ‘man’s man’. However, when he starred as the camp detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out (2019), I saw a softer and much looser side to Craig, which was a refreshing departure from his previous roles as hyper-masculinised characters.
Weirdly, I feel the same with Jeremy Allen White. Because of his role as Carmy in The Bear, who’s almost incapable of expressing any kind of emotional output as well as his role as burly wrestler Kerry Von Erich in The Iron Claw (2023), I’ve only seen White solely as an actor of these types of roles. Therefore it was surprising to hear him take on the role of a queer character from an Aciman novel.
But don’t confuse this with disappointment, because it’s far from that. Instead, Netflix’s choice of casting has raised my expectations of White as an actor and I’m excited to see how he chooses to assume the character of Paul, and which direction he decides to take him over the course of the limited series.
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