Timothée Chalamet credits Lil B for launching his acting career: ‘I was struggling before that”
Timothée Chalamet has revealed that he believes being “knighted” by rapper Lil B was instrumental in launching his acting career.
The Oscar-nominated Dune star made the odd claim during an interview with YouTuber Nardwuar, saying that being invited on stage by the rapper when he was 16 was a key factor in his path to stardom. After Chalamet mentioned the moment, which took place in 2012, video footage began doing the rounds on social media again.
“I met him at NYU,” revealed Chalamet. “I had $50 from a commercial I did. I bribed a kid to give me his ticket. I was in there alone, you know, front row to the right. I raised my hand and got called on by him and told him I wanted to ask out my crush, and he invited me on stage, and he knighted me, and honestly, he said, ‘That boy’s hand has been blessed’, and from there my acting career took off. Thank you, Basedgod.”
It might seem like an odd claim, but it stacks up: “I was struggling before that, and then I was Oscar-nominated by the time I was 22. Shoutout Lil B; nothing possible without Lil B. Pray to the Basedgod.”
Chalamet explained that Lil B has always been one of his favourite artists, and he was inspired by the sense of endless possibility that the rapper engendered with his attitude to his music. He explained, “Lil B is like a hugely formative artist in my life and career. He dropped an album called I’m Gay (I’m Happy), and the rollout was very ambiguous about his sexuality or the meaning of the album. I was just inspired from the sense of, ‘Wow, this guy is just doing whatever the fuck he wants,’ and it was very cool for me at the time and this genre of hip-hop that he was just all over the place. Love Lil B. Shoutout Lil B.”
Amusingly, Chalamet also claimed another hip-hop icon could tell that he’d been “knighted” by Lil B purely by the vibes he gave off when they met on the set of the upcoming A24 movie Marty Supreme. Chalamet smiled, “I was telling this to Tyler, The Creator on set recently because Tyler had no idea I was knighted by Lil B, and then he said he could sense my aura and that it gave off somebody who had been knighted by Lil B.”
For his part, Lil B clearly must have remembered bestowing his blessing on a young Chalamet, because he shared the clip of the actor talking about being knighted and added the message, “LEGACY AND LOVE! – Lil B.”
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