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Do you remember the Timothee Chalamet puppet?
Jimmy Fallon asked on the first episode of hispodcastStrike Force Five, recorded with his fellow late-night hosts.
He didnt like the bit, really.
Fallon says he entertained the idea.
I go, Hey, were gonna have the Timothee Chalamet puppet destroyed.
And the guy was really upset.
He was like, No.
And so Chalamet never got the chance to murder his miniature likeness.
Or, thats the story according to Fallon.
After theStrike Force Fiveepisode aired, Alan reached out to Vulture to break his silence for thesecond time.
I initially made this dummy for one of my neighbors.
I thought it would be funny to make her a little figure.
How did it end up atThe Tonight Show?
I listed it I think it was on a Sunday.
I used Timothees birthday, and I listed it for like $125,000 or whatever.
I think thats what got everyones attention.
Thats a very dangerous place to look your Instagram DM requests.
Is there a way that we could purchase it?
So we worked out a monetary figure and tickets to the show for myself and my siblings in exchange.
They said, Who would you be interested in seeing if you had a choice?
That would be awesome, right?
Can it’s possible for you to disclose how muchThe Tonight Showpurchased the dummy for?
I guess it was the end of November of 2019, I think.
And at that point, they had already used the dummy multiple times.
How did you feel watching your dummy being used in their bits?
I thought that was very clever, so I loved it.
I didnt care what they did with it.
I was totally fine with whatever.
I thought it was really neat.
I spoke with my siblings.
I spoke with friends.
I immediately started working on this dummy because I only had a three-week window.
It was a man.
I then reached out to them.
I didnt get in touch with them until almost two weeks later.
So at this point in the process, would say that the dummy was about 60 percent done?
Yeah, I would say thats probably a good number.
Probably a good 60 percent done.
I had the head completely sculpted and had made the mold of it.
So I sent a message.
They responded and said, This is awesome.
We love this idea.
This was a week and a half before the show, and we were trying to figure out logistics.
Were you working on the dummy with a team?
No, it was just me, and I had a full-time job.
Then it was the Friday before the Monday, December 9, taping.
How did you feel after you got that call?
I was just bummed.
There was a gut feeling that I had once their tone changed.
It went from, This is so cool to We dont have time.
Did it affect the way you felt about Timothee Chalamet?
Personally, I think hes fine.
Hes a good actor or whatever.
I did it entirely for my next-door neighbor.
So did it affect the way I felt about him?
Not really, because I didnt think much about him to begin with.
Was the dummy ever intentionally supposed to make fun of him?
[Representatives for Chalamet did not respond to Vultures request for comment.]
No, my dummies are always just like kind of fun little caricatures.
Ive done them of Melissa McCarthy, Anderson Cooper, Ellen DeGeneres, and Drew Barrymore.
Andy Cohen has one in his office.
Nine out of ten times, they love them.
Celebrities tend to like to see pictures of themselves and stuff like that.
Your friend sent you the podcast, right?
I didnt know anything until I actually sat there and listened to it.
That was the first I actually heard him say that Timothee didnt like the bits.
Youre saying that Jimmy Fallons team never reached out to you about this situation?
[Representatives for Fallon declined to comment on this story.]
And this is the first time youre hearing about it, correct?
They even came to my house to pick it up.
They had someone from their prop department drive from New York to my home in Pennsylvania.
All communication that weve ever had is in writing; we never spoke on the phone.
I had the mold for it, and I had already made a duplicate of it for myself.
I had a copy of it.
They paid me a good amount of money for it.
I couldnt care less what they did with it at that point.
If you go on Google and just bang out in Who created the Timothee Chalamet puppet?
Thats where I have a problem with it.
It would be very easy and has been very easy for people to reach out to me.
Do you have any other copies of the dummy other than the one you made for yourself?
And I wouldnt sell another one.
I dont make a separate jaw mold.
It just wouldnt be worth it financially for me to make another one to sell.
Ive had a lot of people ask to buy one, and I just wouldnt do it.
Plus I dont feel comfortable when its not my likeness.
How do you feel about Jimmy Fallon now?
I think he just seems phony.
Its just really soured me to the industry in general.
I havent made a celebrity figure in quite some time.
The whole thing with the Chalamet thing really put a sour taste in my mouth.
Are you working on anything fun at this point?
And ironically, you know, he was part of that podcast.
I dont think hes ever seen it.
Do you want to pitch your dummy to John Oliver right now?
I actually had it for two years.
I feel like John Oliver is self-deprecating enough that hell have a really good time with it.
I dont know what went wrong with the Timothee Chalamet one.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
