What was the movie that convinced Timothée Chalamet to devote himself to acting?
Since 2017, Timothée Chalamet has enjoyed a meteoric rise to Hollywood stardom, becoming one of the industry’s most coveted stars. Not only is the actor a young heartthrob, garnering a similar cult following to 1990s-era Leonardo DiCaprio or Johnny Depp, but he has proved himself a worthy talent, shining in all his leading roles to date.
Chalamet began his career as a child, acting in various commercials, short films, television shows and theatre. However, he scored his first feature film role in Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children in 2014. The actor also landed a part in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which significantly helped to boost his career. The following years gifted Chalamet with some moderately successful roles until he received his breakthrough in 2017 as the lead actor in Call Me By Your Name.
The Luca Guadagnino-directed coming-of-age drama saw Chalamet play a young gay teenager who falls in love with an older man, an assistant of his father’s. The film was critically praised, particularly Chalamet’s studied and tender performance, which conveyed the pains of first love with striking accuracy. The then-22-year-old star earned a ‘Best Actor’ nomination at the Academy Awards for the role, making him the third-youngest nominee in the category.
That same year, Chalamet also starred in Greta Gerwig’s debut film, Lady Bird, alongside Saoirse Ronan, Lucas Hedges, Laurie Metcalf and Beanie Feldstein. Although the actor’s role was relatively small, his portrayal of a pretentious bass player, a sharp contrast from the gentle character he played in Call Me By Your Name, demonstrated the breadths of Chalamet’s rising talents.
A moving performance as a drug addict in Beautiful Boy alongside Steve Carrell was praised the following year, earning him a BAFTA nomination. Since then, Chalamet has been in high demand. In recent years, he has appeared in countless box-office and critical hits, including Gerwig’s Little Women, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Guadagnino’s Bones and All.
However, before his career-altering performances in Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird, the actor was unsure whether he would seriously pursue acting. Although he studied the dramatic arts at LaGuardia High School, inspired by watching Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, at 17, he attended Columbia University, where he studied cultural anthropology.
The actor eventually moved to New York University to study acting, where he began to realise that he was heading in the right direction. Chalamet told South China Morning Post’s Style, “At that point, I was getting so many offers to work in film that it made it difficult for me to pursue my studies in literature. I think I already knew after Christopher Nolan hired me to play in Interstellar that acting was my real ambition in life.”
However, his work on Lady Bird inspired him to focus solely on acting. “But it wasn’t until I did Lady Bird and my experience working with outstanding actors like Saoirse Ronan and Lucas Hedges. I learned so much from them and also from Greta Gerwig, the director, that I decided that I would totally dedicate myself to acting.”
His evident dedication to acting paid off, making him one of the most beloved stars of his generation. Chalamet is set to star in some exciting projects in the near future, including Wonka and Dune Part Two.
