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It made headlines during the Screen Actors Guild awards earlier this year and it\u2019s mentioned in his new American Vogue cover story this year \u2013 what Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet said when he won: that he was \u201cin pursuit of greatness\u201d, that he was chasing Viola Davis, Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando, as a performing artist. And then, of course, came the debate that followed. Was it too much ego? Or was it a refreshing declaration of ambition from a young actor, considered by many (including me) to be the finest of his generation?\u00a0<\/p>\n
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I wasn\u2019t mad at it, I actually loved it. Do I think a woman could have gotten up there and done the same thing? F-ck no. But that\u2019s not his fault, and I\u2019d rather see Timmy up there articulating what everyone in that room, every actor in the industry, secretly wants for themselves than pretending the thirst isn\u2019t there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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That was eight months ago, as Timmy was campaigning during the last award season for his work in A Complete Unknown<\/em> as Bob Dylan. Cut to now, Timoth\u00e9e is promoting Marty Supreme<\/em>, a character who is actually all ego, a famewhore, the most vain and self-absorbed and compromised but uncompromising figure that Timmy has ever played. Marty will stop at nothing to be a legend. So, looking back at Timmy\u2019s \u201cin pursuit of greatness\u201d, it may have been a teaser for what we\u2019re seeing now on this press tour, an early glimpse as he transitioned from his time in the skin of an actual legend to a wannabe one.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is why Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet is THE Celebrity of these Times. He is as creative with his fame as he is with his characters. And right now, in this moment, for this film, he\u2019s not running from the want, the hunger, the trying. Does he crave the Oscar? F-ck yes. And he says as much to Vogue.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s five people at an awards show, and four people go home losing,\u201d Chalamet says, \u201cyou don\u2019t think those four people are at the restaurant like, \u2018Damn, we didn\u2019t win\u2019? I\u2019ve been around some deeply generous, no-ego actors, and maybe some of them are going, \u2018That was fun.\u2019 But I know for a fact a lot of them are going, \u2018F-ck!\u2019\u201d At least Chalamet is honest about it. \u201cPeople can call me a try-hard, and they can say whatever the f-ck,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut I\u2019m the one actually doing it here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In an age when fewer and fewer movie stars are created, Timoth\u00e9e is indeed one of the last movie stars, at least for now. And he clearly craves validation. After all, the movie business was built on validation from both within and outside of the industry. You need the people in Hollywood to buy into your star quality. You need the audience to feed on that star quality. Validation for celebrities is nutrition. As Timmy says, there\u2019s no point in denying it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nor is there any point in trying to look like you don\u2019t give a sh-t whether or not people see your movies when you\u2019re a movie star. Which is why he\u2019s so involved in the Marty Supreme <\/em>promotional push, as the lead actor but also a producer. He\u2019s designing the merch, he\u2019s coming up with the stunts (the orange ping-pong entourage that\u2019s been following him around), whatever he\u2019ll be wearing on the red carpets, and most importantly, how he will performing in all his interviews \u2013 a hybrid of himself, an actual celebrity, and Marty, a semi-fictional desperado celebrity.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And if people want to say that he\u2019s doing too much, well, I mean, this is a theatre kid from New York, it\u2019s in his goddamn DNA to do too much, do we actually want Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet to move around the world like he\u2019s Leonardo DiCaprio? I don\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let him have his ambition while he puts the effort, in front of the camera and when the camera isn\u2019t rolling. Celebrity gossip is so much more fun when our movie stars openly want to be movie stars. And by the way, LOL at his response when he is asked, as a movie star, whether or not he would ever do television. Duana\u2019s not going to like this, probably, but the answer is a firm \u201cno\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>