In Conversation With The Prince Of Hollywood

IT MUST SEEM LIKE Timothée Chalamet appeared out of nowhere to take Hollywood by storm. His roles in the 2017 films Call Me By Your Name and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird catapulted him to stardom. The former has garnered a plethora of nominations and awards. The 22-year-old Chalamet himself was nominated for Best Actor in the 2018 Academy Awards, the youngest since 1939 and the third youngest in the history of the Oscars.

- Jason Adams

His roles in the 2017 films Call Me By Your Name and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird catapulted him to stardom. The former has garnered a plethora of nominations and awards. The 22-year-old Chalamet himself was nominated for Best Actor in the 2018 Academy Awards, the youngest since 1939 and the third youngest in the history of the Oscars.

But the New York native’s rise to the top has been nothing but luck. Chalamet, who is of French and American descent, has been perfecting his craft since high school (he attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts) and his family boasts several creative professionals. His uncle is the filmmaker Rodman Flender and his aunt Amy Lippman is a long-time writer and television producer.

We speak to Chalamet about the destined-to-be-a-classic film, working with Armie Hammer, and what’s next for him in Hollywood.

You’ve been in the process of making Call me By your name from the very beginning so you essentially grew up with this project. what was it like going back to this teenage mentality? what was it like to transform from timothée to elio and back again?

Well, I’m honoured that you think I had to jump back (laughs). This was the primary challenge, like “how do I play someone who is 10 times smarter than I am?” The dichotomy you’re illustrating is a problem that I encountered on the projects that I’ve done where you shoot on a stage or you’re shooting where you live. But we got to go out there a couple of weeks in advance.