ShutterstockThere’s something about Timothée Chalamet that just hits different. Sure, he’s got the talent, the cheekbones, and a filmography that includes an Oscar-worthy turn as Bob Dylan. But scroll through any comment section or group chat and you’ll notice people don’t just admire him—they feel like they know him. And according to one YouTube titan, that’s not an accident.
On Good Guys, hosts Josh Peck and Ben Soffer sit down with MrBeast—aka Jimmy Donaldson—who drops a blunt take: Chalamet might be the only real movie star left because he stopped acting like one. Instead of hiding behind mystique, he leans into the internet, shows up where people already live online, and lets himself feel current instead of untouchable.
He checks every ‘movie star’ box—but that’s not why he’s winning
On paper, Chalamet is living the most main-character life imaginable. He’s the leading man in billion-dollar franchises, he’s dating Kylie Jenner, and he’s become a fixture courtside at Knicks games—the modern equivalent of old Hollywood glamour.
Donaldson notices all of it. “He’s the only one that’s really able to just get people in seats consistently in movies, which to me would be the definition of a movie star,” he says. “Like if you were to blindfold someone and be like, ‘All right, just write what is a movie star?‘ They’d essentially draw his life.”
But here’s the thing—none of that is actually what sets the Wonka lead apart. Plenty of actors have had blockbuster franchises and high-profile relationships. What MrBeast zeroes in on is something far less obvious and far more strategic: Chalamet isn’t playing by the old rules of celebrity.
Most celebs are playing by rules that no longer apply
For years, Hollywood treated visibility like a liability. The logic was simple—the less people see you, the more important you feel. Mystery meant status. Silence meant power. So A-listers stayed offline, or handed their accounts to someone who posted glossy headshots, premiere photos, and captions that felt like they came from a shared Google Doc titled “Press Safe.”
That mindset made sense in a world where access was limited. It makes way less sense now.
Donaldson has heard the argument plenty of times from people at the top: if fans can get you on their phones every day, why would they buy a ticket to see you on a giant screen? And that fear is exactly why so many celebrities still treat the internet like something to be managed instead of lived in.
The problem is, audiences don’t want distance anymore. They want authenticity they can clock in two seconds. They want to feel like there’s a real person behind the brand. “People aren’t following you on Instagram to see what your press person says,” Donaldson points out. “They’re following for you.”
When your social media presence is clearly managed by someone else, people can tell. And in an era where attention is the most valuable currency, feeling manufactured is the fastest way to become invisible.
Chalamet, on the other hand, is rewriting the rules—and it’s working
“[Chalamet] is leaning into Instagram, he leans into TikTok, and he’s very much a part of social media, my world,” Donaldson says. “I think that’s partially why he is just so relevant amongst 20-year-old people and people in their thirties.”
And honestly, that tracks. He didn’t show up to the internet late with a strategy and a team. He grew up there. Posting, scrolling, being weird online like the rest of us. So when he pops up on your feed, it doesn’t feel like promo. It feels normal. “He doesn’t need a social media manager,” Donaldson adds. “I’m sure he has one, but he’s definitely very involved and it comes across.”
That involvement matters more than people realize. Donaldson—who personally reviews every piece of content that goes out to his millions of followers—understands the difference between showing up and just being present. “I’m not going to just let people sling stuff out to 450 million people without watching it,” he says, before joking about how wild that would be. “Ten percent of the world’s population, ‘Oh, sorry, I couldn’t give a damn to watch it before.’”
It’s funny, but the point lands. When someone with that much reach treats their audience like an afterthought, people feel it instantly. Presence isn’t optional at that scale. It’s the job—and Chalamet gets that.
“I think he’s just kind of rewriting the script whereas I feel like a lot of these bigger movie stars, they just don’t lean into our side of the world,” Donaldson says. “And I think that’s what’s going to allow him to go further beyond where any of these people ever could dream.”
Want the full conversation? Catch the episode on Good Guys, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source dearmedia.com ’
