\n\t\u201cI think you could see I was aimless but motivated,\u201d Chalamet, 30, says to McConaughey, 56, about working together on \u201cInterstellar.\u201d Chalamet was just 17 then, freshly graduated from high school and wrestling with whether to put academics behind him and commit to acting. His career was just beginning: \u201cInterstellar\u201d was his second film ever, and he was in only the first 37 minutes as the teenage son of the space and time traveler played by McConaughey. (Casey Affleck appears as the older version of Chalamet\u2019s character for the rest of the nearly three-hour movie.) In McConaughey, Chalamet found an offbeat role model \u2014\u00a0and an understanding ear. \u201cI remember you had a yoga mat, and you\u2019d be working out and sleeping on set. It was all very strange to me,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was super inspiring. I just can\u2019t thank you enough for being warm to me at that time, when you had no reason to be warm to me. It just changed my life, man.\u201d McConaughey is touched: \u201cYou were pretty easy to be warm to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShayan Asgharnia\/CNN<\/p>\n
\n\tThat warmth between them has endured, though they behave less as father and son now than as peers, even brothers. During a photo shoot before the town hall begins, they drape their arms around each other\u2019s shoulders, then start kicking their legs out and shouting in gibberish: \u201cShaaa!\u201d Grinning and giggling, their chatter in between camera setups is all over the place. One moment, Chalamet is showing McConaughey wrestling clips on YouTube, and the next, he\u2019s introducing McConaughey to his \u201cMarty Supreme<\/a>\u201d director Josh Safdie over FaceTime. \u201cHowdy, howdy, howdy!\u201d McConaughey says, promising that they\u2019ll meet up and \u201cmake each other laugh\u201d in the future.<\/p>\n \n\tBut amid all the silliness, McConaughey looks at his young counterpart\u2019s career with deep seriousness and respect \u2014 even sharing a short poem about Chalamet during the town hall: \u201cAn outlaw on the fringes and in the slipstream,\u201d McConaughey reads. \u201cFearlessly choosing creative damage in the re-creation of the humanities on-screen \u2014 your way.\u201d He\u2019s as fascinated by Chalamet\u2019s performance in Safdie\u2019s frenetic 2025 film as he is by the way Chalamet is now hungrily campaigning for the Oscar for best actor \u2014 the same honor McConaughey won for \u201cDallas Buyers Club\u201d in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet is unafraid to embrace the qualities he shares with Marty, a hedonistic New Yorker who happily commits crimes and forsakes his loved ones in pursuit of a table tennis world championship. \u201cNot in the way that he\u2019s antagonizing the woman in his life and being treacherous,\u201d Chalamet says, laughing \u2014 though he does identify with Marty\u2019s reckless ambition.<\/p>\n \n\tFor 90 minutes, Chalamet and McConaughey have a freewheeling conversation about the memories they hold onto from \u201cInterstellar,\u201d how vying for the Oscar has become a \u201ccreative extension\u201d of Chalamet\u2019s performance in \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d \u2014 and an interaction between McConaughey and Chalamet\u2019s \u201cDune\u201d co-star Austin Butler that bordered on flirtation.<\/p>\n \n\tMatthew McConaughey: Who are the students from [my class] \u201cScript to Screen\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t[Six students raise their hands.]<\/p>\n \n\tTimoth\u00e9e Chalamet: Who tried to sign up for that class and didn\u2019t get in?<\/p>\n \n\t[The crowd laughs as most of the remaining students raise their hands.]<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Let\u2019s talk about \u201cInterstellar,\u201d where we met, bud.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Man, that\u2019s remains my favorite project I\u2019ve ever been in. I think it\u2019s your most fantastic role. I know you were coming off \u201cDallas Buyers Club,\u201d but that movie, to me, was the origin point in seeing how you carried yourself on set, how seriously you and Christopher Nolan took the work. It gave me a license. Coming out of high school, it\u2019s hard to take yourself super seriously. You can feel like you\u2019re wasting time or stuck-up or something. And I remember you had a yoga mat, and you\u2019d be working out and sleeping on set. It was all very strange to me. But it was super inspiring. I just can\u2019t thank you enough for being warm to me at that time, when you had no reason to be warm to me. Christopher as well. It just changed my life, man.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Thanks for that, man. You were pretty easy to be warm to. I remember you had what I felt like was a feverish curiosity at that time. You were figuring some stuff out, but it seemed obvious to me that no matter what you were dealing with, you were going to make your way. And I believe you were in some sort of limbo. You were choosing \u2014 something about music, and somebody was putting pressure about, \u201cMaybe go this way,\u201d and you wanted to go this way.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: I can\u2019t believe you remember that. I was getting pulled between going to college, which is what my parents wanted for me, or pursuing acting right away. No one in their right mind tells a young person, \u201cHey, drop out of school and go pursue acting.\u201d And I remember you were really just open to all those possibilities. You talked about red lights, yellow lights, green lights. You were very comfortable encouraging me to be at my yellow light, figuring out where I was gonna go from there. Those 10 days I worked \u2014 you worked probably 60 or 90 on that movie, for me it was a humble 10 days \u2014 they put me on a trajectory. For three years of not working, it gave me the fuel I needed to keep going. \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShayan Asgharnia\/CNN<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: I gotta say, my last day on \u201cInterstellar,\u201d I was sad to be leaving. In my trailer, I went to the bathroom and there was a huge turd in my toilet. I felt so disrespected. Like, \u201cI know I\u2019m not the star of this movie, but who\u2019s coming in here?\u201d So I went around to all the grips, these big guys, and I said, \u201cHey, one of you let it loose in my trailer.\u201d They said no. I went up to Nolan, and he pointed to Matthew, and Matthew had this devilish grin on his face. I said, \u201cWhy\u2019d you do that?\u201d You said, \u201cIn Texas, it\u2019s a coming of age, baby.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Souvenir.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: That\u2019s a true story.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: What did you learn from Nolan?<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Shit, man. Nolan is my favorite director to this day. \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d made me want to act. \u201cInception\u201d inspired me. When I read the script to \u201cInterstellar,\u201d I thought it was gonna change the world. And I learned as much from him as I learned from you. You guys took the work extremely seriously. I got a sense from you two that you felt like you were walking on sacred ground. You were like, \u201cThis is sacred. I don\u2019t want to treat this as anything other than sacred.\u201d And it was just so inspiring. It was hard to go back to college after that.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Nolan\u2019s like a general. And a taskmaster. He\u2019s the first up the hill in the morning and the last down the hill at the end of the day. Every single day.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: What was your experience like with him?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: He had written this world and these concepts, and the rules of this world. Time travel, and how it\u2019s different in different places and different frequencies. So I would go to him to ask the rules sometimes. Sometimes he\u2019d give me an answer, and sometimes he\u2019d be like, \u201cI don\u2019t know. Let me get back to you.\u201d And he\u2019d always come back. A week later: \u201cI thought about that question you asked.\u201d He\u2019d lay it out, and it would make sense.<\/p>\n \n\tThe other thing I remember is that Chris will not make something simple complicated. This is a man that had a budget to get all the toys, but the way we shot certain scenes where I\u2019m floating through space, I\u2019m on a gimbal that he\u2019s holding onto on the other side. I remember going like, \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t you use the big cranes?\u201d \u201cBecause it\u2019s a waste of money. It\u2019s only as good \u2014 or not as good \u2014 as this. This, what I learned in independent filmmaking, is still the best way to get this shot.\u201d He would always keep it simple when you need to keep it simple.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: As much as I\u2019m impressed by actors in very grounded circumstances, I\u2019m almost more impressed by a technical level of execution like you do in \u201cInterstellar,\u201d where you\u2019re communicating what\u2019s happening in a vehicle in space and locating that geographically for us as an audience. That is hard to do. I watched \u201cInterstellar\u201d again the other day, and it feels so real, and now I find out Nolan\u2019s shaking you on a gimbal or something.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: You do a lot of work like that in \u201cDune.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Hugely inspired by you on \u201cInterstellar.\u201d There were times on \u201cDune\u201d where I felt like, \u201cOK, how do I ground this for myself?\u201d I would look at your level of preparation and be deeply inspired. On \u201cDune 3,\u201d as opposed to the first movie, I came out early and studied the control panel \u2014 all sorts of hieroglyphics and things that aren\u2019t tethered to reality. I wanted to know what each button did, and invent a dynamic for myself with it.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: That\u2019s our job, whether it\u2019s on screen or not. The scene\u2019s not about you knowing everything on the panel. Just the way we move, to add an idea of \u201cI understand what that is.\u201d The comfort.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: The comfort and confidence. I remember coming to set on \u201cInterstellar\u201d and you saying to me, \u201cHow does that tractor work?\u201d I had no clue. You said, \u201cYou should know. If you were on this farm, you would know.\u201d I thought you were half-joking, so I cracked a laugh, and you said, \u201cNo. You should really know.\u201d I went home that night and printed a bunch of research. I knocked on your trailer door. I was proud to show it. That stuff means a lot, man. As an actor, all you risk is looking foolish, because it\u2019s a tremendously foolish job. If you can embrace that foolishness, nothing can stop you. You\u2019re on a powerful light source, man, if you can embrace the clown in all this.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: In the creative arts, it\u2019s not about being right. If you\u2019re right too often, you\u2019re not taking enough risk. Don\u2019t be afraid of the foolishness. Don\u2019t be afraid of going, \u201cI have no idea. Should I know about that? I didn\u2019t know I should know about that.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: I always said, \u201cBeware of the people in life that get more of the advice they give you than you get at the advice.\u201d They\u2019re thrilled by the act of giving you advice. All of a sudden you can\u2019t listen to what they\u2019re saying anymore because they\u2019re flexing on you so hard. You never did that to me, though, which I\u2019m grateful for. I had an actor do that to me once. No names, but the guy was a punk. He asked me what conservatory I had gone to, and I said I didn\u2019t go to an acting conservatory. And he said, \u201cWell, you haven\u2019t trained as an actor then.\u201d And we were all part of an ensemble.<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019ve legitimately seen [\u201cInterstellar\u201d] 22 times or something. I saw it 12 times in theaters when it came out.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: His girlfriend [Kylie Jenner] set him up a screening for his birthday.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: This is true. I was grumpy on the way there because I didn\u2019t know where she was taking me. I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s my birthday. Why are we driving 30 minutes outside of L.A.?\u201d I got to the theater: It was \u201cInterstellar\u201d in Imax. I said, \u201cOh, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAudience question from Ethan Xavier: What instinct do you trust most when choosing a role, and when has listening to that instinct surprised or scared you?<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: The instinct is to work with great directors, first and foremost. If you\u2019re trying to do a great performance, but you don\u2019t have somebody wrangling it in a good way, it doesn\u2019t come to fruition. The riskiest thing was \u201cWonka.\u201d It was an untraditional career step, in that I had done serious movies already. But that director, Paul King \u2014 \u201cPaddington\u201d and \u201cPaddington 2\u201d are tremendous movies to me. I feel like that movie didn\u2019t get its fair shake, even though it was financially successful. I honestly thought it was kinda punk rock to do something that wasn\u2019t so cool, about drugs or something. But I don\u2019t think people really took it that way. It is what it is. I got some free chocolate out of it.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Speaking of punk rock, let\u2019s [talk about] \u201cMarty Supreme.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: I connected with the spirit of Marty. I\u2019d never been approached to do a role like that. Any part of me that ever did a fashion or perfume commercial \u2014 this role was the exact opposite. I love Laurie in \u201cLittle Women,\u201d but [Safdie] wanted the exact opposite. When you have no backstop in life, when you\u2019re your only person that\u2019s rooting for you \u2014 I can relate less now, because I have people rooting for me \u2014 that does something to a person. You could say people [like that] are big dreamers or have freedom, but their fate has been taken hostage by their dream. They\u2019re a victim to it. I felt like that when I was [younger]. I still feel like that to a degree. I\u2019m like, \u201cShit, I\u2019m on a roll. I gotta see this through.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t[Safdie] is the first person I worked with that I felt like was brethren. With Greta Gerwig, we had a cultural sensibility that was the same. But Josh and I can exchange memes. Denis Villeneuve or Christopher Nolan, I\u2019m not sending them shitbag memes. Josh will send me weird shit, man. Josh sent me a meme on the set of \u201cDune 2\u201d that I showed Denis, whose face went white. He approached me like, \u201cYou\u2019re not showing this to everyone, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShayan Asgharnia\/CNN<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Josh is the kind of guy that\u2019ll leave a deuce in your trailer.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Worse than that. He would, like, force himself to throw up in your toilet or something. Like, \u201cWhy\u2019d you force yourself? What point were you making?\u201d He\u2019s gonna kill me for saying that. But I loved working with Josh. He\u2019s a fire-breather.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: You\u2019ve said this role was most like you. Why?<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: When you\u2019re from New York and you grow up in a box, your personality is all you have. Your personality is your armor. I was smaller than everyone growing up. I\u2019m still smaller than everyone. So you weaponize that. I was a crazy kid on the subway growing up. I\u2019d be singing the French national anthem to impress girls who were twice my size. And Marty is that guy. I love the glasses and the bad skin because he\u2019s like, \u201cIt\u2019s all attitude, man. I don\u2019t give a fuck. I\u2019m the best table tennis player in the world. You can\u2019t take shit from me. You might have more money or more power, but when it comes to that fucking table and that paddle and that little orange ball, I\u2019m the king, man.\u201d It\u2019s like when I was on \u201cInterstellar.\u201d I\u2019m living in my mom\u2019s place in New York, and I see you and I see Nolan and Anne Hathway. I see the SUVs, and I\u2019m arriving in the cast van. I\u2019m like, \u201cI wanna be in the SUV, man.\u201d And by some miracle, it\u2019s going well. It is moving to be here with you. I\u2019m fucking stoked.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: It\u2019s not just miracle. I wrote this about you \u2014 tell me if I\u2019m reading your mail. \u201cI see you right now as an artist with a perpetual artistic energy. Unrest. Ambition. Obsession. The center of attention and exceptional ambience at the same time. A young man blazing an original path without asking permission. An outlaw on the fringes and in the slipstream. Fearlessly choosing creative damage in the re-creation of the humanities on-screen \u2014 your way.\u201d Is that fair?<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Oh, man. I can\u2019t say it better than that. I feel like that\u2019s exactly where I am, Matthew. I know 30\u2019s young, still, but I had a quarter, midlife [crisis] in feeling like, \u201cWait a second. I\u2019m in the pocket. I want to keep pushing it.\u201d People said it\u2019s promo, but it\u2019s not promo. It\u2019s a creative extension of the movie. I\u2019m restless and I\u2019m hungry, and I am in the pocket, man. People say I have an athletic approach to this stuff. I am inspired by Jordan. I\u2019m inspired by Kobe. And I know you are. And I know people are behind closed doors. That\u2019s what fucks me up. I know people, behind closed doors, are as driven. It\u2019s strange to get to L.A. A lot of these parties have crazy people in them. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t like to go to them anymore. The gift of my life is exactly what you just said right there: to be in the middle path. A lot of people have partied hard. A lot of people have taken it for granted. Too few people have just taken what they\u2019re doing seriously.<\/p>\n \n\tSo I\u2019m right there, man. We should hang out more, Matthew. We should hang out more, baby.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: How much do you think you\u2019re being called on this path and how much have you got your hands on the wheel, driving it?<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Thank God, man. No one\u2019s framed any questions like this to me, man. I\u2019m so grateful you\u2019re asking things like this.<\/p>\n \n\tI feel like I\u2019m right in the driver\u2019s seat, man. As actors, you get told what to say or what projects to do, and you get trashed online. So every incentive is to move in fear. Not to sound like some pathetic self-help guru, but I don\u2019t wanna move in fear. I wanna move in confidence and joy. This is rare stuff. Even to book \u201cInterstellar\u201d was rare. So I\u2019m moving in deep gratitude, and I wanna leave it behind for someone else.<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m learning that part of the trick of the trade is you\u2019re gonna push people\u2019s knobs a little bit. We work in a really institutionalized industry. It\u2019s not like music: You can be 20 years old and make a fire record out of your bedroom. Here, you have gatekeepers. You gotta get your project financed. You gotta audition. People can get a little uncomfortable if you\u2019re pushing against them. I feel like that\u2019s my job, man. That sounds like some delusional grandeur, divine purpose thing, but that\u2019s what I mean. I\u2019m gonna push the edge, baby.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Your gratitude has fangs.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: That too, man.<\/p>\n \n\tAudience question from Emily Martin: In \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d your character neglects the relationships in his life in the pursuit of excellence. How do you balance your personal relationships while engaging with several demanding projects?<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: I\u2019m incredibly lucky with the family and support system I\u2019ve had from the beginning. And I know how lucky I am because I talk to peers of mine who haven\u2019t had the same support system. The cliches of \u201cHey, this person wants something out of you,\u201d sometimes in a really dark way \u2014 a financial way, or whatever. My parents pathologically don\u2019t expect anything out of me \u2014 to a fault, maybe. I feel like some things, I was too late to spring to, as far as ways I could have stepped up. It\u2019s a balancing act though. Increasingly, I want all my friends to win so we can all relate to each other a little bit more. That\u2019s kinda dark. But in a personal relationship now, in love and life, I\u2019ve just been really lucky.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd I\u2019ve learned as I\u2019ve gotten older to give it back. I was more like Marty in the beginning of life. \u201cGive me all the love and support so I can do my thing.\u201d I was a sponge for that. But I felt like I needed to be like that, because I felt like Marty, like my back was against the wall. I\u2019m like, \u201cIf I\u2019m the only person believing in me, this is it.\u201d I went to dinner the other night with a really good friend of mine and someone we both looked up to \u2014 you won\u2019t be able to figure it out, it\u2019s somebody I\u2019ve never been associated with online \u2014 but he didn\u2019t ask us anything about ourselves the whole dinner. It was a letdown. I was fearful of ending up like that. Just anything! Ask us anything! \u201cHow are you?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m really excited to talk to you about \u201cDallas Buyers Club.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: I observed some of these people in the early \u201980s. To say or insinuate that you had HIV, those were fighting words. \u201cYou callin\u2019 me a faggot? Let\u2019s take it outside, motherfucker. I\u2019ll whip your ass.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: When you look at the physical requirements of that role \u2014 you were coming off it on \u201cInterstellar.\u201d I remember you telling me you were still going a lot.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: I said what?<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: I was saying, \u201cHey, what\u2019d you do this weekend?\u201d You said, \u201cI got a massage, and I had to get up and shit like three times during.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Shit jokes are all over this thing.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Ten years later, would you do something again with that physical requirement on your body?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Yeah, if it\u2019s the right role. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as tough as people think it is. I lost 47 pounds. That was not hard to do, because I just got regimented. Got obsessed. If I show up in the scene not looking like I have HIV, people are gonna go, \u201cBullshit!\u201d That\u2019s embarrassing. I didn\u2019t do my job. I fumbled the ball. It\u2019s a job requirement. So I gave myself five months and lost the weight. I will tell you this: The power that I lost in my body sublimated to my brain. Clinical memory \u2014 expanded threefold from what it was prior.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: What if it was to put on 75 pounds?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Well, I put on another 40 on \u201cGold\u201d and got to 223. I could have swam through the canals naked in Amsterdam and not even got a cold. I was like the Abominable Snowman.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: What did you like better?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Well, it was a whole lot more fun at 223.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: What did your wife like better?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: 223, bro.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: She liked that.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: I had a lot of energy.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Shit.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: I was like, \u201cY\u2019all want another pizza for breakfast? Yes.\u201d \u201cMilkshakes again? Yes.\u201d \u201c\u2018Yes\u2019 is the answer to anything more fun. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Anytime\u2019s a good time for more yes.\u201d I think that would be my family\u2019s favorite character I played.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: A glutton.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: I gave myself license to go be a glutton for three and a half months. You wake up and look in the mirror on Monday morning after you gained another four pounds from all the fried chicken you ate that week and go, \u201cGreat job, buddy.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: How\u2019d you lose it after?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Kinda still am.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Do you ever go back and watch \u201cTrue Detective\u201d?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: No. I\u2019ve never seen anything I\u2019ve done twice.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Really?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Yeah.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Really? No way. Come on. You\u2019ve seen \u201cInterstellar\u201d once?<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: No. Come on, man. Really? No way, man. You\u2019re doing yourself a disservice.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Maybe so. I\u2019m a little uncomfortable going back. And I must say, now that I have children, when any of my films get brought up as possible things for us to watch, my kids go, \u201cYeah\u2026 let\u2019s do that one next week.\u201d So my kids haven\u2019t seen 95% of the stuff I\u2019ve done. One day they\u2019ll look back like, \u201cHey, Pop wasn\u2019t half bad at that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: But I don\u2019t know if I believe it. \u201cInterstellar\u201d once? No way, man. I can\u2019t believe that. I\u2019m guessing you actually have seen it four or five times.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: I\u2019m really not trying to hide it. It\u2019s a workout for me, seeing movies that I\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n \n\tOn \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d look at what you\u2019re doing with the marketing. You\u2019re disrupting things. Before anyone can go away, you\u2019re on to the next. You\u2019re doing fashion ads. You\u2019re using smaller media. You\u2019re not exclusive to Friday night when I buy the ticket to go to the theater. [That\u2019s not] the only time I can spend time with Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: I think that\u2019s of the past, man. Who the fuck is popular enough to go, \u201cHey, you\u2019re only going to see me [in the movie]\u201d? A \u201cBarbie\u201d or an \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d those things are game-changing. They pull people in in a really engaging way. I don\u2019t even want to speak too much about it, because I feel it kills my mojo a little bit.<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: Heard. OK.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: I\u2019m not being defensive \u2014<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: No, no, no. Don\u2019t say it. To all future directors out there, if you\u2019re directing somebody and things are going well, shut the fuck up. And just let it go. Because if you name it \u2014 \u201cHey, I see what you\u2019re doing\u201d \u2014 it was a magic trick before you spelled it. Let it be a magic trick.<\/p>\n \n\tAudience question from Quentin Chiu: Timoth\u00e9e, I heard about your love for professional wrestling, and I was wondering if that has influenced the way that you approach acting.<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: Growing up, I wanted to be an athlete \u2014 I just didn\u2019t have the skill, the body, the physique, the speed. WWE and professional wrestling was somewhere in the middle. It was athletes, but with showmanship and storytelling. It\u2019s planned. It\u2019s scripted. It\u2019s fake, some people say, but the blows are real. The bruises are real. So it\u2019s hugely inspirational. And not to get too pretentious, but in a Greek theater setting, the archetypes these guys represent. I loved a wrestler called the Boogeyman, and he was archetypally nightmarish. It can be kind of cheesy sometimes, but when you\u2019re a teenager, things imprint on your brain more than they do later in life. We were watching Kevin Nash\u2019s entrance video backstage today, because he did \u201cMagic Mike\u201d with Kevin Nash, being sexy men.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s of the people, no matter how cheesy that sounds. It\u2019s deeply archetypal storytelling. It\u2019s war of the worlds, and it\u2019s not told in a pretentious manner. It\u2019s not about cinematic shots, but it gets to a core. There\u2019s nothing like WWE, man. They should pay me for saying this.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMcConaughey: What\u2019s your wrestling name?<\/p>\n \n\tChalamet: The French Fool.<\/p>\n
McConaughey: I didn\u2019t know that we were going to be sitting here this many years later talking about your career, but it was clear to me then: Whatever this young man does latch onto, he will catch it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n