When Timothee Chalamet won the Best Actor SAG Award for A Complete Unknown earlier this year, his earnest speech won high marks across the board. Chalamet didn’t pretend to be shocked by his win, nor did he pretend that he wasn’t interested in winning awards for his work. He told the crowd of elite actors: “I can’t downplay the significance of this award because it means the most to me, and I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I’m inspired by the greats. I’m inspired by the greats here tonight.” Other actors have cited his speech as a landmark moment for a young actor hyping himself and boldly proclaiming his desire to to be one of the most important actors of his generation.
Well, Timmy is currently promoting Marty Supreme, and the critics genuinely love it and it’s getting great reviews all-around. But Chalamet isn’t content with good reviews and awards-season hype! He has to tell everyone that Marty Supreme is his best work ever!
Timothée Chalamet, 30, seems to be rubbing some the wrong way. The amount of showboating he’s done while promoting “Marty Supreme” is akin to Kanye West’s rants about being the GOAT. Quite honestly? It’s entertaining stuff. Wanting something and going after it relentlessly is far more impressive than standing back quietly. Ambition is something to strive for. Sure, you can also say that he should be a little more humble, but there’s nothing wrong with being forthright and blatantly honest—especially as an artist, and especially when you keep delivering strong work.
The latest Chalamet rant might be the best one; it had me chuckling at the sheer audacity it takes to say this. Here he is in an interview talking about his “Marty Supreme” performance and his overall career:
“This is probably my best performance, you know, and it’s been like seven, eight years that I’ve been handing in really, really committed top-of-the-line performances. And it’s important to say it out loud because the discipline and the work ethic I’m bringing to these things — I don’t want people to take it for granted. I don’t want to take it for granted. This is really some top-level sh-t.”
Chalamet said this in a video interview, which has now been removed from YouTube, possibly because Chalamet’s team might have freaked out? This has been his theme in interviews for the past year though, this sort of “acknowledge me and my greatness” and “I’m doing great stuff here.” The thing is, he is legitimately one of the greatest actors of his generation. He’s done fantastic work year after year in franchises (Dune), art-house films (The French Dispatch) and mainline studio films (A Complete Unknown). Now, does Chalamet come across as arrogant? For sure. But as someone who covers awards-season interviews, it’s sort of refreshing and different to hear an actor hype himself in this way. Of course, a woman would never. If an actress spoke about herself this way, Hollywood would burn her as a witch. The bigger question is: will Chalamet continue to campaign in this way for the entire awards season?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
