With two Oscar nominations under his belt for Call Me by Your Name (2017) and A Complete Unknown (2023), he is at the height of stardom now.
Timothee Chalamet also reflected on the pressures of being a child actor. (Photo Credits: X)
It’s hard to imagine Timothee Chalamet as anything but the magnetic, chameleon-like actor he is today. Whether he’s playing a lovestruck teen in Call Me by Your Name or stepping into the legendary shoes of Bob Dylan, he has a way of disappearing into every role. But long before Hollywood came calling, Chalamet nearly walked away from acting altogether. During a recent chat, the 29-year-old star reflected on his early years in New York City, where he lived in a rent-subsidised building filled with artists, many of whom were trying, often unsuccessfully, to carve out careers in the entertainment industry. It was a sobering experience.
“This building truthfully made me scared of acting because it’s a tough lifestyle and a lot of people aren’t doing fantastically,” Chalamet admitted to Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes.
Cooper pointed out that growing up surrounded by artists might have encouraged him to follow the same path. Instead, it had the opposite effect. “It actually terrified me of becoming an actor,” the Wonka star confessed.
Despite coming from a family steeped in the arts, his mother was a dancer and his sister, Pauline Chalamet, is also an actress – his father urged him to take a more conventional route.
“My dad told me to ‘be normal,’” he shared.
Timothee Chalamet also reflected on the pressures of being a child actor. “It’s no place for a child. It really isn’t. The cameras and people going, ‘Hey, do the thing where we recognise you as cute in your own head,” he said.
Of course, despite his early doubts, Timothee Chalamet ultimately embraced acting and the rest is history. With two Oscar nominations under his belt (Call Me by Your Name in 2017 and A Complete Unknown in 2023), he has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents.
His latest role as Bob Dylan has generated plenty of buzz, especially after Dylan himself took to social media to share his thoughts. “There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!). Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me. The film is taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric – a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book,” the music legend wrote on X.
There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!). Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me. The film’s taken from Elijah…— Bob Dylan (@bobdylan) December 4, 2024
Interestingly, Chalamet and Dylan have yet to meet. If they ever do, the actor joked that he’d try to “out-Bob him” by steering the conversation away from the movie. “I’d talk about the weather or my favourite sandwich,” he added.
Listen to the full interview here:
Chalamet’s journey began in television as a teenager, with a role in Homeland in 2012. By 2014, he was making his film debut in Men, Women & Children and catching the eye of audiences in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Since then, he’s continued to build an impressive resume, starring in Beautiful Boy, Little Women, The King, Dune and, most recently, A Complete Unknown.
