Timothée Chalamet Says He ‘Spent Six Figures Out of My Pocket’ on ‘SNL’ Musical Performance and Press Tour Stunts Aren’t a ‘Gimmick’: ‘I Don’t Want to Be in the Pretentious In-Crowd’

Timothée Chalamet’s unconventional press tours, starting with Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” and continuing to this year’s buzzy “Marty Supreme,” have become a hot topic of internet discourse — and the Oscar-nominated actor wants you to know that it’s not a gimmick.

During a packed Q&a at London’s Prince Charles Cinema on Sunday, Chalamet — in conversation with “Love Actually” filmmaker Richard Curtis — went deep on why he doesn’t consider moves like turning the Las Vegas sphere into a ping-pong ball or staging an unhinged Zoom meeting as strictly PR.

“Here’s the thing — this risks killing any mystery around it, but I really don’t look at it as promotion or marketing. I see myself as an artist expanding,” Chalamet said. “And certainly the Zoom had a little bit of satire to it, but the initial video in the glass box, those [ping-pong ball] heads, I…