Yahoo Lifestyle Timothée Chalamet Said Being Told He Didn’t “Have The Right Body” For Blockbusters Helped Guide Him Toward Movies Like “Call Me By Your Name” And “Little Women”
For the second time in his career, Timothée Chalamet looks set to receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination — this time, for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in James Mangold's upcoming film, A Complete Unknown.
And while he’s widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, Timothée opened up in a brand-new interview about the setbacks he faced before finding his feet in Hollywood.
Sitting down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe for a wide-ranging conversation about the new Bob Dylan biopic — which Timothée described as the “biggest” and “most special” role he’s ever taken on — the Wonka star recalled his failure to land parts in buzzy blockbuster movies at the start of his career.
“I wanted to be a big movie actor, right?” Timothée said, discussing how he connected with Bob’s early desire to become a mainstream “rock ‘n’ roll star” like Elvis Presley. “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, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body.’”
Dylan O’Brien wound up playing the lead role in the three Maze Runner movies, which came out in 2014, 2015, and 2018. Released around the same time was the Divergent movie series, which featured male actors like Theo James, Miles Teller, and Ansel Elgort.
“I had an agent that called me and said, ‘You got to put on weight,’ basically — not aggressively, but you know,” he added.
Notably, Timothée said that these rejections eventually helped him carve out his unique route to stardom. He later found success in smaller budget films like Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name, which earned him his first Oscar nomination in 2018.
“I found my way into these very personalized movies,” he said, listing off projects like Call Me by Your Name, Beautiful Boy, Lady Bird, Little Women, Miss Stevens, and Hot Summer Nights, which he described as “a very personal style of movies.”
“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,” he added.
Now, as the face of the Dune franchise, there is no doubt that Timothée eventually made his name as “a big movie actor.” Earlier this year, he even became the first actor since John Travolta to have two top-grossing movies in eight months, thanks to the box office success of Wonka and Dune: Part Two.
If the early hype is to be believed, Timothée could likely land his second Oscar nomination next year. And if he were to win on the big night, he’d become the youngest person ever to win Best Actor, taking the title away from Adrien Brody.
With all that in mind, it sounds like Timmy’s career path certainly worked out for the best. LMK your thoughts in the comments.
You can watch Timothée’s full interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music here.
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