Timothée Chalamet and the co-star who made him nervous: “I didn’t want to weird him out”
In 2017, a relative newcomer to Hollywood appeared in several movies that would take the industry by storm. Timothée Chalamet, a 22-year-old with simultaneous appeal as a New Yorker and a Frenchman (thanks to his dual citizenship), seemed to have come out of nowhere, with roles in two ‘Best Picture’ nominees.
But this young heartthrob had been chipping away at a career across smaller-budget dramas and comedies for a few years, as well as starring as the teenage version of Casey Affleck’s character in Interstellar.
He just managed to strike Hollywood at the perfect time, his performance as the emotionally vulnerable teen who falls for a slightly older man in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, alongside his supporting role as the quintessential fuckboy in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, demonstrating great range from the young star. There was only one way his career could go from here, and that was up, fast.
Earning an Oscar nomination for Call Me By Your Name, the actor quickly became a go-to leading man. As more opportunities came for the star, what remained was the fact that Chalamet was just a guy in his early 20s who found the idea of working with certain established actors just as exciting as anyone else.
So, when it came to bagging a leading role as a struggling addict in Beautiful Boy, the real challenge wasn’t bringing such a complex character to the big screen, but trying not to obsess over his co-star, Steve Carell.
Like many people, Chalamet loves the hit US version of The Office. All of a sudden, he was given the opportunity to work with Michael Scott himself, although his role in Beautiful Boy as Chalamet’s concerned father would be strikingly different. Speaking to W Magazine, the actor revealed how excited he was to work with Carell, “Yeah, the first time I met Steve was at a chemistry read. I shouldn’t even say a big The Office fan, I’m the typical The Office fan, which is like a big The Office fan”.
However, Chalamet knew that he had to keep his cool, “I didn’t want to weird him out,” he said, “Have you ever got it wrong when you meet a famous person you really like? And then it’s kinda your learning experience? And you’re like, ‘OK, I’m not gonna do it like that again’. And that’s what it was with Steve. I gave him a big hug and tried to keep it focused to the scenes.
“The irony is that since we’ve been promoting the movie, it’s come out that [I’m a fan]. Now I can be honest about it and a total weirdo. And there’s Amy Ryan, who is also in The Office. They’re Michael and Holly,” he gushed.
Clearly, it doesn’t matter if you find yourself up for an Oscar against the likes of Gary Oldman and Daniel Day-Lewis, when you’re given the chance to work with someone from a show you love, that excitable child inside comes straight out.
