Timothee Chalamets earliest directors on all the signs hed be a star.
Theres Something About Timothee
Six years ago, he became the most in-demand young actor in Hollywood.
What makes him so irresistible?
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He bounded into the room wearing a backpack and a baseball cap.
He shook peoples hands.
Everyone was smitten with Timmy.
If he was auditioning, theres a good chance Lucas Hedges and Tom Holland were, too.
He was likable but with an edge.
I called Timothee in because I had met him at La Guardia High School.
He did an excellent audition.
He read three scenes, all of which were with Dana, the characters girlfriend.
There were no chemistry readings needed with Morgan Saylor.
He was smart, good-looking, able to take direction, and the right age.
He was everyones first choice.
We had to say, Dont do that because it looks like youre making a visual comment.
He was not aware of it.
I saw him at La Guardia after he leftHomeland, and we hugged and said hello.
He was dating Madonnas daughter at the time.
He was a kid, and so was she!
His agent, Danie Streisand, was extremely confident about Timothee and showed me some tape of him.
I was like, Absolutely.
It was an offer it wasnt an audition.
We met in New York at a restaurant for lunch.
For such a young man, he was very articulate and came with his own ideas about the character.
When Timmy came in for his audition, his interpretation of the character was unapologetically adolescent.
Sometimes it would be like, Thats fantastic.
Maybe a little less saliva, Timmy, because he would throw himself into it.
He didnt give a fuck if his choice was a disaster.
On that movie, we had a lot of very established actors.
We had Diane Keaton!
And they all recognized how special Timmy was.
I remember Olivia Wilde being blown away.
Their jaws would just drop at how free he was.
And when we would all go out for dinner, they were so protective of him.
Timothee and June Squibb had a real connection.
I have so much incredible footage of Timmy getting down with June Squibb on the dance floor.
I talked to all the actors of that generation.
I had a Skype with Tom Holland.
They were all a part or two away from becoming stars.
Timothee really went out of his way to let me know how important this role was to him.
I remember he came over to our house after the Sundance premiere ofCall Me by Your Name.
It was the year after Jordan had producedLa La Landand gone through that whole experience.
We opened a bottle of champagne, and Jordan was just like, Are you ready for this?
Even as a 16- or 17-year-old, he had a great sense of style.
He wore things in an interesting way, like tucking sweatpants or joggers into his socks.
He has that casual-cool vibe.
Hes also a bit of a prankster.
The guard immediately came over, like, Sir, excuse me!
He totally acted aloof, like,Whats the big deal?and walked away.
Hes self-confident, and he liked to push peoples buttons a little bit.
RK:We did an open casting call in New York and saw quite a lot of children.
JN:He was basically an adult.
He was walking in talking to us like a grown-ass person.
He came in and shook our hands.
He knew how to do the lines.
We didnt have to talk him through too much.
RK:His mom was there acting as his manager, essentially.
He was this cheeky, mischievous little imp.
He was very playful.
JN:He was completely comfortable with himself, which is bizarre at that age.
RK:He was really curious about the whole process of what we were doing.
He got really involved in the makeup effects and how they were done.
He was so excited that he was going to die.
He was like, This is going to look so cool!
JN:Later, I had a feature script we were going back and forth on.
I met with him about playing the lead.
It was quite a racy project, kind of in a Larry Clark world.
His mom was like, Yeah, theyre going with that one.
He had this X factor.
Hes like a character that escaped fromA Midsummer Nights Dreamand is visiting us here for a while.
In rehearsals, he was so far over-the-top but it was a good over-the-top.
There was a little drunk scene, and he was doing amazing physical things with it.
I took him aside and said, Ya know, hes just drunk.
He was grateful for that because he was like, I thought I had to make everything interesting.
I said, No, its actually important that some things arent interesting.
Paul Simon did some music for me, so Paul came to a dress rehearsal.
Paul is maybe the most understated guy ever.
Then he watched a little more and said, Kidsverygood.
That, to Paul, is like gigantic shouting.
He showed up at my apartment a couple of years ago after he was huge.
I feared for him with that level of celebrity.
Hes trying to survive and flourish in a world that chews people up and spits the out.
I think it was someone from his personal life, perhaps a woman-friend.
Im off in my corner trying to focus and I hear him screaming and crying.
Im like,What the hell?I go around the corner and theres this back-room loft.
Hes up there by himself, and hes doing something to prepare himself.
I recognized that he was doing hisDeath of a Salesmanmonologue fromMiss Stevens,full-out.
I asked him after the show, Timmy, what was going on?
He said he was just doing his monologue to get into it.
I remember him talking aboutCall Me by Your Name.
He said he was nervous about it.
He said, Im gonna have sex with a peach.
None of us could wrap our heads around what the context of that was until we saw the movie.
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