{"id":296663,"date":"2025-12-03T12:05:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/296663\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T12:05:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:05:30","slug":"how-timothee-chalamet-is-playing-a-supreme-fame-game-on-his-own-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/296663\/","title":{"rendered":"How Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet is playing a supreme fame game on his own terms"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At the Screen Actors Guild Awards back in February, Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet laid out his mission statement with a bracing, earnest clarity. \u201cI know we\u2019re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I\u2019m really in pursuit of greatness,\u201d the actor told a room full of fellow performers, after accepting the Best Actor trophy for his portrayal of a young Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown<\/a>. \u201cI know people don\u2019t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats.\u201d <\/p>\n

Acting may be a profession of rampant egos, but it is surprisingly rare to hear an actor set out his ambitions, his desire to be the best, in such a straightforward way. As Chalamet put it, his industry peers \u201cdon\u2019t usually talk like that\u201d. Their awards speeches tend to be full of self-deprecation, carefully curated relatability or attempts at positioning themselves as some kind of underdog, rather than striving for more recognition, status or fame. <\/p>\n

Naturally, then, Chalamet\u2019s speech proved divisive. Was it endearingly honest? Was it an abrasive display of self-confidence that bordered on self-aggrandisement? Would a female star on Chalamet\u2019s level have the audacity to say something similar about her career trajectory? Or had Timmy just been listening to too many motivational podcasts? <\/p>\n

Fast-forward towards the end of this year, though, and Chalamet seems to be making significant strides towards the \u201cgreatness\u201d he spoke of. He has received rave reviews across the board for his performance as a mid-century table tennis pro in Josh Safdie\u2019s new movie Marty Supreme, which lands in UK cinemas on Boxing Day. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Marty Supreme exists to prove that Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet could have easily kicked it with the New Hollywood icons of the Seventies, the Harvey Keitels and the Gena Rowlandses, then point proven,\u201d The Independent\u2019s film critic<\/a> Clarisse Loughrey wrote. \u201cHe\u2019s truly one of our greatest talents.\u201d The Guardian hailed him as \u201ca smash\u201d, while The Times suggested his \u201cshowboating turn\u201d is \u201cbound to snag an Oscar nomination, possibly even the Best Actor award\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"Chalamet<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Chalamet spoke about his desire for \u2018greatness\u2019 in his Screen Actors Guild speech earlier this year (Getty)<\/p>\n

Still, at this point in his (admittedly brief) working life, compliments like these are almost a given. We\u2019re talking, after all, about a star who has already managed to pick up two Oscar nominations (for his breakout role in Call Me By Your Name and for his turn as Dylan in A Complete Unknown) before reaching 30. That is no mean feat when the Academy has historically prioritised older male performers. But what\u2019s arguably more intriguing is Chalamet\u2019s highly strategic \u2013 and highly unconventional \u2013 approach to playing the fame game at this crucial point in his career. <\/p>\n

At promotional events for Marty Supreme, Chalamet has been flanked by a group of men wearing massive orange ping pong balls over their heads, like a tangerine guard of honour. Earlier this month, he released a very meta parody video on social media, in which he played an ego-tripping version of himself dominating a Zoom marketing meeting for the movie, suggesting increasingly unviable stunts (how about painting the Statue of Liberty orange? Or dropping ping pong balls from a branded blimp). According to a Vogue interview, he spent six months working on co-designing a line of merch for the film, apparently at least partially bankrolling the venture himself. It was worth it: the branded hoodies and jackets have been worn by the likes of Kendall Jenner, the Biebers and various sports stars, becoming the unlikely viral streetwear hit of the season.<\/p>\n

It is hard to imagine, say, the more fame-wary Paul Mescal \u2013 who at 29 years old and with an Oscar nomination under his belt is probably Chalamet\u2019s closest equivalent in this year\u2019s Academy Awards race \u2013 doing any of the above. But Chalamet is seemingly pulling off a rare feat: achieving critical acclaim and the respect of his peers while also unabashedly courting and cultivating a more mainstream audience for his work. In an age when box office sales are down and many so-called \u201cevent\u201d movies launch with more of a whimper than a bang, has he forged a new blueprint for success?<\/p>\n

Chalamet has always taken what he has called an \u201cuntraditional\u201d approach to his career. A native New Yorker born to a French journalist father and a mother who danced on Broadway, he attended the city\u2019s LaGuardia High School, a performing arts hothouse best known as the school that inspired Fame. While still a student, he landed a role in the hit thriller Homeland; his co-star Damian Lewis was so impressed that he implored his manager to sign this new talent immediately. \u201cI think you should get on the phone right away with this kid, because I think very soon, everyone\u2019s going to be on the phone with him,\u201d Lewis advised. <\/p>\n

\"Timoth\u00e9e<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet is earning rave reviews for his performance in Josh Safdie\u2019s \u2018Marty Supreme\u2019 (A24)<\/p>\n

Instead of going down the well-trodden rising star route of signing a long-running TV contract just to up his visibility, Chalamet kept holding out for work he was genuinely interested in. \u201cI had a marathon mentality, which is hard when everything is instant gratification,\u201d he told Time in 2021. Indie roles and a part in Christopher Nolan\u2019s Interstellar followed, but his breakout would come in 2017 in the form of Luca Guadagnino\u2019s devastating queer romance Call Me By Your Name. <\/p>\n

Chalamet played Elio, an Italian teen who falls hard for a handsome graduate student, played by Armie Hammer, over the course of a sweltering Lombardy summer. This small arthouse adaptation of Andr\u00e9 Aciman\u2019s novel may not have set the box office alight, but Chalamet\u2019s performance piqued the interest of industry tastemakers and mobilised a new generation of film fans who\u2019d been on the lookout for a worthy idol. The fact that Chalamet \u2013 skinny, angular, with a mop of dark curls \u2013 didn\u2019t look anything like the very macho Marvel stars dominating Hollywood at the time only made him a more intriguing prospect. <\/p>\n

The following year, the 22-year-old Chalamet became the youngest Best Actor nominee since Mickey Rooney in 1940. He doubled down on his internet heartthrob status with brilliant supporting turns in Greta Gerwig\u2019s coming-of-age tale Lady Bird and her adaptation of Little Women, played a Shakespearean prince in The King and was acclaimed for his sensitive portrayal of a drug-addicted teen in Beautiful Boy. <\/p>\n

These smaller, more alternative choices showcased his obvious talent and provided strong foundations for the next stage of his career: the blockbuster era. Chalamet seemed immune to the lure of Marvel (fellow one-time teen idol Leonardo DiCaprio apparently advised him: \u201cno hard drugs and no superhero movies\u201d). Instead, he opted for something more interesting (and yes, a bit artsier), playing Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the sprawling sci-fi saga Dune. It was a critical and commercial hit, and has spawned a handful of sequels. <\/p>\n

Chalamet, in his own way, was now a fully fledged franchise star, but he\u2019d pulled it off without entirely abandoning the sort of roles that made him famous. In a nice stroke of symmetry, Dune arrived in cinemas on the same day in 2021 as Wes Anderson\u2019s aesthetically pleasing anthology story The French Dispatch, in which Chalamet played a very Gallic student revolutionary; the actor, it seemed, was still happy to take on smaller-scale, arthouse fare, while also headlining musicals (Wonka) and appearing in Netflix hits (Don\u2019t Look Up). <\/p>\n

\"Chalamet\u2019s<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Chalamet\u2019s relationship with Kylie Jenner has put him in the tabloid glare (Getty)<\/p>\n

His relationship with reality star and make-up mogul Kylie Jenner brought him into the tabloid glare, too. When news broke in 2023 that the pair were dating, the collective response was a mild bemusement, as their public personas couldn\u2019t be more different (some commentary \u2013 along the lines of \u201cwhat on earth do they talk about?\u201d \u2013 was definitely laced with sexism). But there\u2019s a certain logic to the match; both of them are clearly entrepreneurial and ambitious. It\u2019s worth noting, too, that Chalamet\u2019s high-profile romance hasn\u2019t overshadowed his work, or dented the respect he gets from critics either (perhaps this is a privilege only afforded to men). <\/p>\n

A Complete Unknown seemed to mark a sea change for Chalamet. He\u2019d spent years learning to sing and play the guitar at a Dylan-worthy level \u2013 and, it seemed, he wanted the cinemagoing public to get out to see his efforts on the big screen. Towards the end of 2024, he embarked on a very Gen Z publicity blitz, turning up at a Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet lookalike contest in New York, arriving at the film\u2019s premiere on a Lime bike, cropping up as an unlikely (but extremely well-informed) pundit on ESPN\u2019s college football show and doing the rounds on various podcasts beloved by Gen-Zers. <\/p>\n

It looked nothing like a traditional awards season campaign, but it worked. The film earned almost $140 million at the box office worldwide, and Chalamet got his Oscar nod (although a win proved elusive). And he\u2019d managed to make a load of under-30s care about a Bob Dylan biopic, arguably no mean feat. <\/p>\n

\"As<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

As Bob Dylan in \u2018A Complete Unknown\u2019 (Searchlight Pictures)<\/p>\n

Most actors roll their eyes at doing the publicity rounds, but Chalamet seemed to embrace it. A recent interview with American Vogue shed light on his tactics: essentially, he doesn\u2019t want to be acting into a void, performing for just a handful of dedicated arthouse filmgoers, or, as Vogue put it, \u201che has no interest in making prestige films for a vanishing population\u201d. Instead, he wants to get his work out to the masses. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to risk being too declarative,\u201d he told the magazine. \u201cBut I also don\u2019t want to look back on life and things I\u2019ve put out and go, \u2018Oh, little old me. Hey, see the movie if you want. It is what it is.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So the ping pong ball-headed bodyguards and the Zoom skits, then, are a clever way of getting people talking. Chalamet\u2019s advantage is that he has grown up online, in the age of social media; he knows exactly what will go viral, and how to tap into the internet\u2019s very specific brand of ironic, self-referential and extremely online humour. No wonder TikTok is teeming with videos unpacking not just the film\u2019s trailer, but Chalamet\u2019s marketing genius. <\/p>\n

For some, his shift to a more \u201cbro-ey\u201d persona (the college football chat, the podcasts and the stunts) is a way of positioning himself in a more strident, macho or even Maga-coded pop cultural landscape; I\u2019m not entirely convinced, but if so, it\u2019s certainly proof that Chalamet is way ahead of the game when it comes to manoeuvring his public image. <\/p>\n

It might not appeal to the purists, but it\u2019s hard to deny that Timoth\u00e9e\u2019s tactics are paying off: there\u2019s arguably no other young actor working today who can command critical respect, industry approval and fervent fan appeal, all at the same time. As he put it to Vogue: \u201cPeople can call me a try-hard, and they can say whatever the f**k. But I\u2019m the one actually doing it here.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-296663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}