Timothée Chalamet Wins SAG Award for Best Actor and Says ‘I Want to Be One of the Greats’: ‘I’m in Pursuit of Greatness’
In a “simple twist of fate,” Timothée Chalamet has made history.
Chalamet won his first major awards precursor for his transformational performance as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s biopic “A Complete Unknown.”
More from Variety
“I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” Chalamet said while accepting his award. “I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I’m inspired by the greats. I’m inspired by the greats here tonight. I’m as inspired by Daniel Day, Lewis, Marlon, Brando and Viola Davis as I am by Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, and I want to be up there. So I’m deeply grateful. This doesn’t signify that, but it’s a little more fuel. it’s a little more ammo to keep going. Thank you so much.”
Chalamet started out his speech by remembering his mother, who has worked at Actors Equity for 40 years. He went on to say, “I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role, and how much this means to me, but the truth is, this was five and a half years of my life. I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan, a true American hero, and it was the honor of a lifetime playing him. It’s an honor I share with Monica, Edward, the entire cast, doing a biopic in a genre that could be perhaps tired. Everyone gave it their all — I’m so deeply grateful to them.”
At 29, he is the youngest person to win best actor at the SAG Awards. While his closest Oscar competitor, Adrien Brody, remains the youngest best actor winner at the Academy Awards — he was also 29 at the time — the previous youngest SAG best actor winner was Nicolas Cage, who was 32 when he won for “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995).
In addition to Brody, Chalamet prevailed over fellow Oscar nominees Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), as well as Daniel Craig (“Queer”), who was snubbed at the Oscars in favor of Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”).
This marks Chalamet’s first SAG Award win on his third individual nomination. He was previously nominated for “Call Me by Your Name” (2017) and “Beautiful Boy” (2018), the latter for supporting actor. He has also received ensemble nominations for “Lady Bird” (2017), “Don’t Look Up” (2021), “A Complete Unknown” and the TV drama series “Homeland” in 2013.
While the win is significant, Oscar voting closed on Tuesday, Feb. 18, two days before SAG winners were announced. Additionally, no actor has ever won the Oscar for best actor with only a SAG victory leading into the ceremony. In fact, since the SAG Awards’ inception in 1994, only six actors across all four acting categories have won an Academy Award with SAG as their sole major precursor.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
