Timothée Chalamet Wants to ‘Be One of the Greats’ — And He Was Right to Say It
Throughout his omnipresent, warmly received press tour for the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” Timothée Chalamet has leaned into his digital fluency and youthful charm. As the rare matinee idol under 30, Chalamet has the rare ability to riff with the likes of Theo Von or Brittany Broski — modern media moguls who command a large Gen Z audience via TikTok and YouTube — without seeming like a try-hard. Whether dropping in on his own lookalike contest in downtown Manhattan or hanging out with the marching band at the University of Minnesota, Dylan’s home state, Chalamet has shown off his sense of humor and slightly bro-y bonhomie, throwing himself into a “Saturday Night Live” hosting stint and chatting college football like any co-ed who spends his weekends glued to ESPN. This is a man so in tune with the zeitgeist he’s dating Kylie Jenner, one of the only celebrities who’s mastered the attention economy as well as he has.
But in the final phase of his Oscar campaign, which will culminate in this Sunday’s ceremony, Chalamet has gotten serious. In his own way, of course: When the actor told Anderson Cooper “I’m going Daniel Day-Lewis” on his chosen roles in his “60 Minutes” interview, Chalamet was expressing his intentions in the language of an Instagram meme. Nonetheless, he was doing so on “60 Minutes,” a sober show with an older audience more closely associated with presidential candidates than aspiring Academy Award winners. Having sold his movie, which has grossed over $100 million at the global box office, to teenage and 20-something fans who might know his work better than Dylan’s, Chalamet has turned his focus to voters for whom earnestness might be more appreciated than playful amusement.
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The most direct form of this appeal arrived at Sunday night’s Screen Actors Guild awards, where Chalamet took home the prize for a lead performance by a male actor in a leading role. “I can’t downplay the significance of this award, because it means the most to me,” Chalamet told a rapturous crowd in Los Angeles. “I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness.” Name-checking Michael Jordan alongside Day-Lewis and Viola Davis, among others, Chalamet called the award “a little more fuel — a little more ammo to keep going.”
As Chalamet himself noted, it’s not typical for rising stars to spell out their ambitions in such explicit terms. We’ve been trained to expect humility and genuflection to one’s idols, and in taking a different tack, Chalamet risks projecting arrogance or entitlement. Granted, he has gender on his side; the “Dune” and “Wonka” star hews closer to an ingénue than a seasoned veteran on the spectrum of awards archetypes, but unlike the starlets most often assigned the former role, Chalamet faces more forgiving standards for showing effort and aspiration. Should he take home the statue in six days, don’t expect an Anne Hathaway-style backlash for his version of “It came true!”
Nevertheless, Chalamet’s speech suggests that such rhetoric should be more acceptable, or even encouraged, from his generation of stars. Chalamet seems to understand that he’s part of an endangered species: actors building reputations through deliberate choices in lieu of constant exposure on social media, and succeeding enough to have power they aim to use responsibly. The New York native broke out in 2017 with Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me By Your Name,” which earned him his first Oscar nomination, and Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird.” With his bona fides established, Chalamet could easily have settled into a life of arthouse acclaim. Instead, he’s opted to walk a tightrope, pursuing blockbuster IP á la “Dune” and “Wonka” — but a very specific kind.
The SAGs are not the first time Chalamet has positioned himself as an heir to a larger legacy. In 2021, he appeared in Adam McKay’s ensemble satire “Don’t Look Up” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, who passed on an indelible bit of wisdom: “No hard drugs and no superhero movies.” While this critic can’t speak to the first half of that koan, Chalamet has followed the second to a tee, eschewing Marvel, DC and Star Wars for parts he can put his stamp on. Superman, Spider-Man and the Skywalkers loom too large in the public imagination for anyone to do for them what Chalamet did for Paul Atreides: render a mythic figure in their own, idiosyncratic image. And in a less creative, slightly more cynical sense, Chalamet can always claim credit for finally making “Dune” a global success in a way no one short of Kevin Feige can for the MCU.
“A Complete Unknown” is a smaller film than Denis Villeneuve’s space epics, but for a figure like Chalamet, the burden is no less monumental. The biopic is precisely the kind of mid-budget fare that was once Hollywood’s bread and butter, but is now just as rare as the DiCaprio school of celebrity. The tandem decline is no coincidence — one specimen is symbiotic with the other. And that very relationship between star and star vehicle is why Chalamet’s speech is the opposite of obnoxious. It means that when he aims for greatness, he’s doing the same for an entire industry. He can only reach his goal if he gets the necessary opportunities, or more likely, helps create them.
Chalamet did not give my personal favorite performance from this year’s crop of nominees. That would be Adrien Brody of “The Brutalist,” Chalamet’s fellow frontrunner and the man from whom he would claim the title of youngest-ever winner if he sways the Academy. I still find him incredibly easy to root for, and I expect many voters feel the same. Part of why Chalamet works so well as Dylan, besides his evident immersion in the music and the mannerisms, is how easily one man’s rise to meteoric fame maps onto the other’s. It’s a reflection of their ability, but also their drive. Except with Chalamet, there’s an added dimension. In order to aspire to greatness, there must be greatness to aspire to — and in today’s Hollywood, that’s far from a guarantee. We need advocates like Chalamet to do their part.
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