How Timothée Chalamet landed the role of ‘Wonka’ without auditioning
Over the years, actors speculated to be playing the notorious Willy Wonka in Paul King’s upcoming Warner Bros prequel have been many, from Ezra Miller to Ryan Gosling. However, King, known for a number of fantastical family films like Paddington, has recently discussed how only Timothée Chalamet would land the starring role with such ease.
Chalamet was King’s first and only choice to play the iconic character of Willy Wonka: he didn’t even have to audition for the role; all King had to do was check that he could sing and dance. “It was a straight offer because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it,” King told Rolling Stone. It didn’t take King long to realise that he would be more than capable, though.
“But because he’s Timothée Chalamet and his life is so absurd, his high school musical performances on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of views,” he added. “So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well. And I knew that was in his arsenal, but I didn’t know how good he was. When I spoke to him he was quite keen. He’d done tap dancing in high school and he was like, ‘I’d quite like to show people I can do that.’”
King also said they had a chocolatier on set who made “incredible concoctions” that tasted “every bit as good as they looked”. “We actually made an enormous vat of hot chocolate — not scalding, just warm hot chocolate for them to immerse themselves in,” King said. “So there was there a lot of chocolate around.”
Taking on the challenge of recreating Roald Dahl’s complex world of Willy Wonka was a challenge for King as it differed significantly from the likes of his previous films, like Paddington. “Certainly, I tried to have darker characters than [what] you would find in a Paddington movie, for example,” King added.
“It’s a crueler world and it’s a meaner world that Willy Wonka finds himself in because that’s the sort of city that Charlie grows up in. Unlike the Paddington world, not everyone is nice in a Roald Dahl world. I definitely got to play with those grotesque ideas, but I hope not to damage a generation of children”.
Wonka will be arriving in theatres on December 15, with Chalamet taking centre stage as the dark and whimsical Willy Wonka. Its supporting cast is sure to awe-inspire, boasting the likes of Rowan Atkinson, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant, Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, and Jim Carter.
Watch the full trailer below.
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