The musician responsible for Timothée Chalamet’s polarising mindset: “I’m inspired by the greats”
During his ‘Best Actor’ acceptance speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Timothée Chalamet declared, “I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I’m inspired by the greats,” and these words would burnish themselves into the cultural zeitgeist almost as soon as they were proudly presented.
The complete downward plunge of Chalamet’s campaign for the Oscar earlier has been the subject of much fervent scrutiny, wherein the 30-year-old star was right at the top of the bookies’ favourites list as the season began, and, as the ceremony came ever nearer, his inevitable loss quickly seemed entirely predictable. Chalamet was playing see-saw with his life on the big screen, and he had nothing to blame but his jarring can-do attitude, which makes one wonder where this self-aggrandising arrogance comes from.
First and foremost, it appears that Chalamet is critically acclaimed for performances in which he embodies a young, restless, somewhat gaudy boy with much to learn about the world, such as Marty Mauser in Marty Supreme, but how about when he played the cynical pseudo-intellectual Kyle Scheible in Greta Gerwig’s 2017 coming-of-age film Lady Bird, or Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence in Little Women, or Bob Dylan, for God’s sake?
Clearly, more than many other contemporary actors, Chalamet has enmeshed his public persona with his actual acting roles. In this complex chain of personhood, he’s also linked his public persona with other cultural touchstones: Not only is his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, a true symbol of American celebrity culture, but their appearance court-side at every Knicks game this season suggests Chalamet’s polarising mindset is made up of countless cultural threads.
So why not music, too? Chalamet’s stint playing hillbilly-turned-electric-hero Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown shows just how familiar he is with the industry, but beyond the ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ icon, the actor has credited another musical star for his complex mindset.
Backstage at a Kid Cudi show in Montreal, Chalamet listened intently to the singer-songwriter’s personal lamentations; at a low point, the star had no choice but to use his talent, artistry, and ambition to perform his way up and out toward the stars, Cudi said, or something shmucky like that.
All plans of sticking around for the concert faded, and Chalamet excused himself to zip back home and scribble down everything he heard. He told GQ that he treasures the lessons from that night and keeps them on an oft-recited notes app on his phone. The takeaway was: Are you, Timothée, the sort of person who can’t possibly live any other way? “Fuck yeah,” he said, with a smile.
To the rest of us folk with a usual clock-in, clock-out kind of job, Chalamet’s insistence that sheer drive and determination can help you reach the stars comes off a little tone deaf. Not everybody is a pretty white man living in New York with a step-in to the arts world through his parents. How much of the drive and determination does that account for, Timmy?
Cudi and Chalamet have since collaborated several times professionally, most notably on Netflix’s 2022 animated movie, Entergalactic, which charts an artist’s attempt to balance success, love, and responsibility as a budding artist; a re-watch might do Chalamet a world of favours.
