“I'm very proud of the work. And as far as a resemblance to the character, you know, I say this not ironically, this is the most me I was before I had a career, you know?”
Timothée Chalamet is popular. The press conference he attended was dominated with questions about him. Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein who co-scripted the relentless Marty Supreme (Safdie directing) field questions about Chalamet more often than they do about their own work. Odessa A’zion answers what it is like to work with Chalamet repeatedly as interviewers change the wording of their questions to sound like they’re at least adjacent to her role as Rachel. Later, when Gwyneth Paltrow is available to talk about her role, interviewers hone in on Chalamet. It’s unquestionable that Marty Supreme is dominated by Chalamet’s performance as Marty Mauser, a talented hustler trying to be the best in the world at table tennis and throwing people into chaos and heartbreak with nary a care. He’s not, however, the only person in the film. Such is the curiosity about the 29-year-old actor.
Chalamet is finding the press conference a lot of fun, but he’s also carefully threading the needle to come up with a way to say he “respectfully” deserves the attention. He hasn’t been backwards in coming forwards to express his desire to be one of the greats. He’s been working for many years to get to the point where he is more than his handsome boy allure.
While I take notes, ask a question, and contemplate the press conference I’m surprised at how starstruck people seem to be. The people involved aren’t first timers. They’ve been dealing with cinema professionals for a long time. What kind of spell does Timothée Chalamet cast to turn journalists into… well… fans?
After Chalamet provided the answer above which was for the question “How much do you resemble Marty Mauser and his drive to make his dreams come true?” he carefully adds a caveat.
“I say that delicately because he’s not the most admirable character in some senses, because he is very motivated to achieve his goals. But I felt like that was what I related to the most with this character, was this sort of fierce determination and drive to get to where I wanted in my career, and not take no for an answer. Especially in the film industry, where there’s so much rejection when you come out the gate. And really, the only person believing in yourself is you at the jump.
“The end of the movie presents the question of what Marty’s gonna do? Like, if he’s gonna rise to the challenge of fatherhood and be a responsible adult or if he’s gonna crumble. And you know, Josh and I would joke a lot about that, like does he stick around for a year and then fuck off again? Or does he rise to the challenge?
“So, that was probably where I related to Marty the most and that I was most proud that Josh Safdie saw in me something I felt other directors hadn’t seen before. He allowed me to be a version of me that is very different than Laurie in Little Women, is very different from Elio in Call Me by Your Name, or Wonka. You know, this is a more animalistic guy.”
Chalamet adds, “And I think in that way, I'm much more like Marty, where I feel my heart is on my sleeve and any attempt to disguise that or be too cool for school is challenging for me. Maybe it’s getting close to that 30th birthday mark, because I don’t want to look back on life and career and go, ‘I pretended to care less about this than I did’ you know? And I also don’t want to be too intense.”
Chalamet turned 30 in late December. But he’d been working on Marty Supreme and in training when he could for five years. In between shooting scenes on Dune he’d be off practicing table tennis. He showed same kind of devotion to learning to play the guitar and sing like Bob Dylan for James Mangold’s biopic A Complete Unknown.
“Some of these roles are so effortful, Marty Supreme included. Even just to maintain the tone of Marty Mauser, which is at like a nine the whole time. You can’t phone that in.
“I can’t phone it in for the audience, but also Josh would be all over me. These things take tremendous effort and I hope I'm lucky enough, opportunity-wise, but also energy-wise, to continue to do great movies.
“But I don’t take it for granted. This is not any suggestion of, oh, 'I'm taking a break or retirement', anything like that. Yet, in all honestly, I don't know how many of these I can do, you know? Just totally honestly speaking.”
In many ways Timothée Chalamet is relatively unique for an actor of his age. It’s not only his collaborations (small or large) on films directed by some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Luca Guadagnino, Greta Gerwig, and Wes Anderson, it’s also that his name sometimes eclipses other people working on the project.
Compare Jacob Elordi who is two years Chalamet’s junior. Elordi has been working hard and is now gaining momentum, but his rising star still has far to go until it rivals “the skinny kid” from Hot Summer Nights, The Adderall Diaries, or other vehicles such as the basically buried One & Two from 2015.
Chalamet is at a juncture where he sees himself gaining more confidence to be the foundational lynchpin of the projects he takes on.
“I don't know what the future holds. What I'm most curious about is like a sense of authorship as an actor, which is very hard to come by. I got lucky with Safdie. I got lucky with James Mangold, where they gave me room.
“But it’s hard to come by authorship as an actor. I think it’s healthy because it makes you feel less like a pawn in a greater scheme of what’s going on. And I think that’s what I’ll be most curious about the next five or ten years of my career, is how to find that without shooting myself in the foot. The confidence I got from A Complete Unknown and Marty Supreme is [the realisation] I don’t have to be suffering like Beautiful Boy, I was like, really in pain or something.”
With a Golden Globe win for his portrayal of Marty Mauser Timothée Chalamet is reaping the rewards for his hard work. Yet, as he says, can he keep up the level of ownership of roles and not shoot himself in the foot? Well, he is known for some fancy footwork.
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