“You are just an actor”: Timothée Chalamet Compares Being Branded a Movie Star to Death
The 27-year-old American-French actor Timothée Chalamet is surely one of the strongest actors of this generation. He started his journey with Men, Women & Children, and had his breakout role in the 2017 LGBTQ drama Call Me By Your Name. Chalamet received immense praise and even an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of teenager Elio. Since then, he has not looked back. He has been featured in movies like Lady Bird, Little Women, Dune, Bones and All, The King, and many others that have only further cemented his place in Hollywood.
It is no news that Chalamet has great star power at this point. However, to the surprise of the fans, he opened up in a 2021 interview about how he does not like being called a “movie star.”
“It’s a combination of luck and getting good advice:” Timothée Chalamet opens up about being called a movie star
In 2021, Time magazine did a profile on Timothée Chalamet, where he opened up about his thoughts on being termed a “movie star.” The interview portrays a much more grounded and level-headed version of the actor off-screen.
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He said that the term “movie star” feels like “death” to him. To quote an excerpt from the interview:
“Chalamet doesn’t take himself too seriously. The idea that he’s seen as a movie star—let alone his generation’s most promising—seems to make him squirrelly. ‘I don’t want to say some vapid, self-effacing thing,’ he says. ‘It’s a combination of luck and getting good advice early in my career not to pigeonhole myself.’ The term movie star, to him, is ‘like death.’ All it does is make him think about ’90s-nostalgia Instagram feeds.”
He continues to say that:
“‘You’re just an actor,’ Chalamet says, like a mantra. ‘You’re just an actor!’”
Also Read: Timothée Chalamet Cardi-ed Out So Hard on the Red Carpet, Later Confessed He “Needed to chill”
It shows how, even at a very young age, fame did not manage to overpower his senses. He wanted to be as in touch with reality as possible. As one can see from the above excerpt, even the idea of being “famous” made him act uneasy. Maybe this is why Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve described the actor as someone carrying a “beautiful vulnerability.”
Hugh Grant felt anxious about working with Timothée Chalamet on Wonka
In an exclusive interview with ET, Hugh Grant opened up about how he felt a bit “anxious” to work with Timothée Chalamet for the movie Wonka. When the interviewer asked him how his experience was working with Chalamet and if he also fell in love with the candor of the actor, he jokingly said:
“I don’t like anyone being too successful. So, I was a little anxious about Timothée Chalamet. His graph was too vertical. He is a proper old-fashioned film star, so it’s enranging me.”
Both Chalamet and the interviewer had a laugh, and then Timothée Chalamet said:
“To get that from you? It’s like getting a royal flush or something. Nothing nice will ever come out of his mouth again.”
The interview went on even more hilariously. When asked what made them bond off-screen, Hugh Grant said with a chuckle, “b*tchy gossip.”
Timothée Chalamet’s latest movie, Wonka, will be released in theatres on December 8, 2023. Chalamet will be the third actor to reprise the role of Willy Wonka on the silver screen, after Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp.
