The roles Timothée Chalamet wasn’t allowed to audition for: “We’re gonna stop”
Most of us became aware of Timothée Chalamet’s existence when he starred in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, prodding at peaches and weeping exquisitely in front of a fire following a summer of life-changing, soul-altering love.
He played the teenage Elio with perfect believability, caught between upholding what he thinks is expected of him and knowing that he has fallen for another boy, well, man. The movie was the title on everyone’s lips that summer, gathering praises from many for its poignant exploration of identity and sexuality, and criticism from others for supposedly romanticising a relationship between a 17-year-old and a 24-year-old.
Almost a decade on, though, and it’s safe to say that Call Me By Your Name is still one of Chalamet’s boldest and most profound performances, and without it, who knows what would’ve become of his career. It was proof that he is well-suited to an introspective part with plenty of depth to get stuck in, something that has led him to various other well-received projects, like playing an ambitious ping-pong player in Marty Supreme or a teenage drug addict in Beautiful Boy.
These days, you can expect him to lead a big-budget movie, but it’ll still be one that requires some level of psychological intrigue. Whether he’s playing Paul Atreides in the Dune series or embodying the harmonica-playing folk icon Bob Dylan, the actor knows his worth and his skill, and he’s not going to waste it on something that doesn’t challenge him.
However, when he started out in Hollywood, he initially wanted to be in the kinds of movies that would’ve made him into a completely different sort of star, one who probably wouldn’t have three Oscar nominations for ‘Best Actor’ by now, as he could be found auditioning for teen-oriented franchises when he was younger.
He once told Rolling Stone that he wanted to be a part of the likes of Divergent and Maze Runner, and while these movies were hits with young audiences, they’re not exactly works of pure cinema, and the actor soon learned he is much more suited to something with a bit of bite.
This realisation didn’t come without rejection, though, as he repeatedly failed to win over filmmakers when he auditioned for these teen movies, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, all stemming from the fact that he was just too skinny.
“I would always get the same feedback, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body’. I had an agent call me once and say, ‘I’m tired of getting the same feedback. We’re gonna stop submitting you for these bigger projects, because you’re not putting on weight’,” the actor explained.
He couldn’t help feeling wounded by these claims, and he even tried to make a change. “I was trying to put on weight. I couldn’t! I basically couldn’t. My metabolism or whatever the fuck couldn’t do it.” In the end, this proved to be the best rejection he could’ve asked for: “I was knocking on one door that wouldn’t open. So I went to what I thought was a more humble door, but actually ended up being explosive for me.”
Clearly, these forgettable franchises just didn’t carry enough weight for his skills to shine.
