The one song that helped Timothée Chalamet deliver his breakthrough performance
It’s easy to underestimate the work of an actor when watching the finished product; sure, there’s the more standard task of learning scripts, getting into the role, figuring out accents and all of that, but it’s easy to forget that there’s also the barrier of being on set, actually just being really awkward and weird.
Think of being one of the kids in Stranger Things, where in the episode, you’re battling some hideous, terrifying beast, but on set, you’re actually just acting opposite someone in a full green-screen bodysuit for the monster to be added later, or imagine acting a scene where nothing is said at all, where there will simply be music playing, but when you’re filming it, there’s no music at all, because typically, unless the project is a musical, the music is added after.
Thus, when it comes to important cinematic needle drops, it almost feels inconceivable that the tune wasn’t being blasted across the set; music comes to be so essential to films as a good soundtrack can change everything, and the right song at the right time can hold just as much, if not more, emotion than a good piece of dialogue or any plot action.
It seems that Timothée Chalamet has always known that as clearly, he’s already a big music fan, as evidenced from the fact that anyone can go on YouTube and see him rapping Nicki Minaj as a teenager, or as he’s grown up, he’s shared his love for everything from rap to Charli XCX’s Brat, to the wistful indie singer Weyes Blood. He’s starred in musicals and worked as a producer on a Kid Cudi documentary, so Chalamet’s love for music isn’t in question.
But when it comes to his acting, it plays an essential part there too, such that, when he was gearing up to play Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, he even learned to sing and play guitar like the artist, but it was in the making of his breakthrough movie, Call Me By Your Name, where he felt music truly unlocked something.
That film has countless beautiful musical moments, from Elio’s own piano playing, for which Chalamet specifically learnt to play piano, just to be able to play a Bach caprice, to some great 1980s tunes in there, like The Psychedelic Furs’ ‘Love My Way’ playing on the dancefloor. However, overwhelmingly, the most moving musical moments in the film come thanks to Sufjan Stevens.
Luca Guadagnino was already a fan of the artist, and so when he decided to choose the music himself, rather than employ a music supervisor, he called on Stevens to write some original songs for the film, and the results were ‘Mystery of Love’ and ‘Visions of Gideon’, which landed right as they started filming, meaning that the director could hand them to Chalamet.
Already knowing that ‘Visions of Gideon’ was the perfect fit for the movie’s closing scene, where Elio sobs wordlessly in front of a flickering fireplace, Chalamet decided to film the moment with the song secretly in his ear on a wireless headphone.
“Sufjan’s song was playing in my ear so I could mirror the structure,” the actor explained, allowing him to time his emotional performance to the song, letting his tears flow heavier as the song moved through the emotions as well as letting the weighty feelings held in the music prompt him, move him and allow him to access whatever place he accessed to deliver such a striking final image for the film.
