Timothée Chalamet Says An Agent Once Told Him To “Put On Weight” To Help Book Blockbuster Roles

Natalie Oganesyan
·2-min read

While reflecting on his career, Timothée Chalamet said there were certain doors that were closed to him in the industry based on his looks.

In a new interview with Zane Lowe promoting his Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown for the first time, the Oscar nominee said he related to certain outsider elements the legendary musician contained, as he’s been somewhat typecast for roles.

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“I’ve had a life experience, I don’t want to say it’s weird, but I can relate to some of these things he went through,” he explained. “Bob wanted to be a rock & roll star — Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley — that was the sort of, depending on your point of view, the sort of rice crispy pop, rock & roll music that was saturated and marketed to kids in the late ’50s. Equally, I wanted to be a big movie actor.”

The Call Me By Your Name star continued, “But if I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent — things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up — the feedback was always like, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body. I had an agent that called me and said, ‘You got to put on weight,’ basically, not aggressively, but you know.”

However, Chalamet was able to carve out his own lane, largely through critically lauded indie films like the poignant Beautiful Boy opposite Steve Carell, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird and Little Women and his early breakthrough starring portrayals in Miss Stevens and Hot Summer Nights.

“I found my way into these very personalized movies,” Chalamet said. “For [Dylan], it was folk music … Those were smaller budget but very — I don’t know how else to put it — personable movies that started in this theater space. This is where I found my rhythm, my confidence, my flow, whatever you want to call it.”

Since then, Chalamet has certainly become a “big movie actor” in his own right, fronting Denis Villeneuve’s dual epics Dune and Dune: Part Two, as well as musical Wonka. He has broken box office records, with a personal worldwide return of $2.5 billion as of earlier in 2024.

Directed by James Mangold, A Complete Unknown — due in theaters Dec. 25 — will document Bob Dylan’s arrival from Minnesota in New York in the 1960s, tracing his status as an unknown 19-year-old with immense talent to his international explosion amid a vibrant music scene and sociocultural upheaval. Elle Fanning also co-stars as Chalamet’s love interest, Sylvie Russo, alongside cast members including Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro.

Aside from the biographical drama, Chalamet is currently filming Josh Safdie’s A24 table tennis film Marty Supreme.

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