Timothée Chalamet: The New Hollywood Leading Man

The Hollywood leading man. What a title to hold for any cold-blooded male. Take the names of James Dean, River Phoenix or Leonardo DiCaprio. By nature: talented; by birth: sensitive, charming, ambitious, forever-relevant, hard-working, goal-driven, and publicly averse.

Whether you call him an art-house stalwart for his breath-taking performance in Call Me By Your Name, a good-willed chocolatier in Wonka, or box office king fronting the Dune franchise, the baton of the Hollywood leading man has very smoothly been passed down by dint to our boy, Timothée Chalamet.

I mean, several media outlets have reported him as being one of the best actors of our generation. In 2018 Forbes named him in their 30 Under 30 Hollywood Entertainment list and, if that’s not all, has been called a style icon.

Currently fronting the Dune franchise as the exiled Duke of House Atreides, Paul Atreides, and as charming chocolatier, Willy Wonka in the family-fun blockbuster, Wonka, Chalamet’s acting range is huge. He’s worked for it, and will continue to work for it, I’m sure.

‘When you embark on a story that is 100 percent original,’ he told Collider this year, ‘you’re really shining your flashlight into the dark.’

Born in 1995 in the Manhattan Plaza artists colony in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, little Timmy’s life as a creative was paved out for him from the off-set.

For those of you who don’t know, the Manhattan Plaza building has literally played house to some of the biggest names in the entertainment business. It’s an apartment block full of artists. Names like acclaimed playwright, Tennessee Williams, to James Earl Jones, to Samuel L. Jackson (who also worked there as a security guard), to Alicia Keys, have resided in its walls. The Chalamet’s lived on the 33rd floor of the high-rise, where (as Timothée recounted in an interview) ‘it felt like we were literally floating in the sky.’

The child of a former Broadway-dancer-turned-real-estate-agent mother and UNICEF editor/journalist father, Timothée grew up as a quirky, energetic kid.

Timothée was surrounded by art on a daily basis growing up with such loving parents, and alongside his older sister, Pauline (three years his senior) who also is now an actor. As a young kid, Timothée looked up to his older sister a lot and mimicked what she was doing 24/7. A big influence, for sure. But as annoying as that might’ve been for Pauline, Timothée was your typical young, carefree kid. He got up to mischief (as to be expected), had a pet turtle called Urdle, and loved living in his own little imaginary world.

‘I was a big Power Ranger guy growing up,’ Chalamet told Vogue in 2018. ‘At seven/eight/nine, if you walked in on little Timmy taking a bath it would’ve been with the Power Rangers.’

He had picked up a passion for playing football too (inspired mostly by his dad) and played the sport at a competitive level up to the age of eight. His favorite team (in which he religiously wore the team’s trademark colours of green and white any chance he could) was AS Saint-Étienne.

It was in the summers that Timothée’s French father, Marc, made certain to take the family back to his hometown in Nîmes regularly and spend endless summers in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small French village two hours away from Lyon. There, they stayed with Timmy’s grandparents for months at a time. As they only spoke French, the young Timothée became fluent in the language and (thanks to his dad again) obtained dual citizenship.

Fast-forward years later, in 2017, whilst doing a press-tour for Call Me By My Name, Timothée told IndieWire that his self-identity was enhanced by his time spent in France. It offered him ‘a little bit of ambiguity in the self-identity sense, which helps a lot creatively because I don’t feel as constricted by who I am.’

Back in the USA, Chalamet started attending middle school (where he was feeling creatively unfulfilled) and he disappeared, almost, into the world of video games.

In 2018, VICE published a theory online that Chalamet was the host of Youtube channel, ModdedController360. All proof of ModdedController360 has been removed from the internet.

In the since-deleted Youtube video, the clip only showed a pair of hands cradling the ‘sexy’ (his words) looking controller. The voice that narrated the clip was definitely Timmy’s, showing off proudly his hand-painted leopard-skin Xbox 360 controller (he charged USD$10 for a ‘customized pad’).

As well as gaming, he had gotten an agent through his mum and was dabbling here and there in adverts for TV, but it was nothing overly spectacular. It was after watching Heath Ledger’s portrayal as Joker in the 2008 Christopher Nolan film, The Dark Knight, that Chalamet decided then and there what his future had in store for him.

‘We had just been to see one of my sisters’ ballet performances and my mum and grandma, after many requests, came to see the movie with me,’ Timothée told SilverKris magazine in 2019. ‘It was at a theatre in Times Square, and Heath Ledger’s performance had such an inward impact on me. It just brought up these feelings, and I left that theatre a changed boy and knowing I wanted to be an actor.’

He applied for a place in the prestigious drama school, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was in the interview process to gain a place he totally bombed, getting caught up in his words. His middle school transcript was pretty dire too. The powers-that-be at the school had actually rejected Chalamet before they saw his audition tape. They didn’t think he had what it took. His drama teacher, Mr. Shifman, told Vanity Fair in 2018, that ‘I remember his audition because I gave him the highest score I’ve ever given a kid auditioning. He was really that good, and he must have been, I don’t know, 13 at the time. It was riveting.’ Based on his outstanding acting ability, his grades were overlooked and he got accepted into the school.

At LaGuardia, he really got to show off his acting chops, and used his time there as a way to absorb the creative juices he was so depleted of in his middle school days. He learnt well from many big names in the industry and dabbled in school musicals. He performed as the Emcee in Cabaret and Oscar Lindquist in Sweet Charity. He also made his stage-debut in the Off-Broadway play The Talls, written by Anna Kerrigan. The play is a coming-of-age comedy set in the 1970s, in which Timothée played a sexually curious 12-year-old. Getting flooded with positive reviews of the performance gave Timmy the boost he needed to head in the right direction with his acting. In one review, he was even compared to James Dean—his first taste of being Hollywood leading man material.

That found-success in turn contributed to his drive with his schooling. He started getting straight A’s and contributing more and more to the culture of LaGuardia. Of course, with Timothée Chalamete’s cheek, he had a bit of fun with it too. There’s a video circulating the web of Lil Timmy Tim (his rapper alter-ego) where he was spitting bars for a statistics class! Years later, he even ‘spat bars’ again in a Saturday Night Live skit called ‘Rap Roundtable’, alongside Pete Davis. Word up, Chalamet!

‘The biggest takeaway for me from drama high school was keep your heart on your sleeve as an actor. That’s your instrument—the ability to make yourself an open wound.’

After graduating from high school in 2013, Timmy went on to start his first leading role in the 2014 Jason Reitman film, Men, Women & Children. He played Danny Vice, one of the teens that the film centres around who is greatly affected by the age of the internet. There’s even a scene where Timothée gets beaten up by Ansel Elgort’s character.

This, in itself, is quite funny as both Chalamet and Elgort are best friends behind the screen.

‘No one disliked Timmy,’ Elgort told Refinery29 in 2018. ‘People disliked me. Everyone loves Timmy.’

With several tiny TV appearances through the years, his big breakthrough as an actor came in the role as Elio Perlman in Luca Guadagnino’s 2017, Call Me By Your Name, based on the 2007 novel by André Aciman.

In the film, Perlman, a cultured and well-rounded character, falls in love with his father’s summer intern, Oliver (played by Armie Hammer). In the film, Chalamet oozes this appeal that makes him like a streetwise romantic poet, in big, black, lace-up boots, a white shirt, burgundy velvet jacket.

As an added bonus, Chalamet also taught himself how to speak Italian, learn guitar and play piano in preparation for the role.

The utter beauty of the film is enough on its own, for sure. Timothée’s performance in it, of course, is phenomenal, and is a deeply affecting and earnest film—and it doesn’t need any tropes or catastrophes to befall its characters to leave us utterly moved. As Elio, he is bolshie, vulnerable, and infatuated.

‘I don’t think I’ll have an experience as immersive as this one,’ Chalamet told reporters at the Call Me By Your Name press conference in 2017 at the Mayfair Hotel in London. ‘This movie was so intimate and intimately told and there are so many moments of thought in this script, which is rare. Things are usually so expositionally-oriented in moving the plot forward. I’m gonna be hard-pressed to find another project like this any time soon.’

The film was garnered with box-office success, and rave reviews. Olly Richards from the British film magazine, Empire, wrote that ‘In a film in which every performance is terrific, Chalamet makes the rest look like they’re acting. He alone would make the film worth watching.’ That role, as you’d expect, garnered him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor at the 2018 Academy Awards, making him the youngest performer in 80 years to receive a nomination at the awards. He was also nominated for BAFTA’s, won Independent awards and the hearts of a growing fan-base.

After the success of Call Me By Your Name, Timothée received waves of audition calls. He was firmly becoming the Hollywood leading man—every girl’s new boyfriend, and every guy’s new best pal. He can carry it well, his likeability.
It was on the red carpet of his next film, My Beautiful Boy, in 2018 that Chalemet was given a beautiful piece of advice from another Hollywood leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio.

‘No hard drugs and no superhero movies,’ he reportedly told Chalamet.

Sound advice, DiCaprio. It’s funny to note that My Beautiful Boy is about the effects that methamphetamine has on a son, from the perspective of a father, and also in 2018 Chalemet had auditioned to act in the upcoming Spiderman film. Jokes on you, Leo!

‘The types of roles I hope to do are things where I’ll hopefully have to shapeshift,’ he told Deadline on My Beautiful Boy in 2018. ‘It’s important not to feel the work of someone onscreen, and instead to feel the urgency or the reality of the story being told, and that doesn’t mean it has to be immediately relatable.’

As the glow of his success got brighter, being one of the most talented Hollywood heartthrobs out there—with his cheeky charm and lay-back, chill charisma)—Chalamet also found time as an ambassador for Chanel, being the latest face for their men’s smooth fragrance, Bleu de Chanel, with the campaign film directed by Martin Scorsese.

Talking about big fashion collaborations for Chalamet, he also partnered up with French Haider Ackerman to create a charitable clothing initiative that benefits Afghanistan Libre, an organisation that fights for women’s and children’s rights in the country.

He posted about the collaboration on his Instagram: ‘Together, in August, we were horrified to learn of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and decided to design a hoodie where 100% of the proceeds will go to @afghanistanlibre, a relief organization with boots on the ground that fights to safeguard women’s and children’s rights—as those atrocities continue to spread, we should amplify the voices of those silent soldiers.’

Timothée then dominated—and I mean dominated—Hollywood. He appeared in such blockbusters as The King, directed by David Michôd, where he played Henry V alongside Joel Edgerton, Robert Patterson, and Lily-Rose Depp. He starred in Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age period drama Little Women (based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott). He even starred as a quirky, marijuana-smoking hipster called Yule in the Adam McKay black comedy, Don’t Look Up. And yes, as Paul Atreides in the first 2021 Dune film (to critical acclaim, might I add). Everyone was and is still smitten by Chalamet.

‘This second film is ‘the becoming’,’ Chalamet told Fandango earlier this year on Dune: Part Two. ‘It’s the follow-up of Paul, who we see in the first movie being this boy, and he steps into the second one fatherless and becomes the man he needs to be. I’ve loved every project I’ve been in, but I think this is the one I’m most proud of.’

Set to hit cinemas at the end of February, Dune: Part Two will pick right up where the first film left off and continue the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 acclaimed novel. The film will tell of Paul Atreides (Chalamet) joining back up with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen people, who are set on the warpath of vengeance and redemption.

With Atreides having foreseen a terrible future being on the horizon, he will do everything in his power to prevent it. In addition to Chalamet and Zendaya, the all-star ensemble cast of the sequel consists of Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, and Dave Bautista, to name a few.

As well as Dune: Part Two (which is set to take the world by storm), Timothée has also lent a hand to the magical world of Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka, a prequel to the much-loved story from the 1964 children’s book.

In the movie, Chalamet showcases his singing and dancing talent alongside a big star-studded cast—Olivia Coleman, Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Grant, to name a few.

‘This is a Wonka with a hat full of dreams,’ Chalamet told Newshub entertainment reporter, Kate Rodgers last year, ‘who wants to find a community who supports him that he loves, and he does. It’s a very heartfelt movie.’

Looking out at the vastness of Chalamet’s acting ability and the success he has brought to the industry, it’s obvious that he’s got what it takes for leading-man-Hollywood-leading man material. An audience needs a leading man whom they can trust. One with substance, and drive, and fits almost seamlessly into the canon of popular culture. Who has the talent, the looks and motivation? Timothée has that drive and motivation. He’s a powerhouse performer. Timothée Chalamet is the new-age Hollywood leading man.