Editorial note: This article was first published on February 19, 2019. We are republishing it now with more updated information about Timothée Chalamet.
Timothée Chalamet quickly became the Internet’s boyfriend after his role in “Call Me By Your Name,” playing a young gay Jewish man named Elio. Since that break-out role, he’s been in “Lady Bird,” “Beautiful Boy,” Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” “The French Dispatch,” “Wonka,” and “Dune” and “A Complete Unknown.” Put simply: He’s everywhere.
So it’s time for 18 things to know, duh.
1. Timothée was born on December 27, 1995 in New York City.
2. His name is pronounced Tim-oh-tay, not Timothy.
3. His dad is French and his mom is Jewish. His mom, Nicole, is his go-to awards season date.
4. Growing up, he spent his summers in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a French village where his grandparents live. He explained that this led to “a little bit of ambiguity in the self-identity sense, which helps a lot creatively because I don’t feel as constricted by who I am. I almost don’t really know the answer to that.”
5. He went to LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City (yes, the school from Fame) and graduated in 2013. Of his high school, he said it changed his views on acting. “I had some excellent teachers and really fell in love with it. I saw that it could be and should be treated as a craft, it doesn’t have to be this kind of machine of fakeness or anything like that.”
6. Growing up, he starred in commercials and had small roles on shows, but he didn’t really enjoy acting. “I think it’s probably healthy that I didn’t like it,” Chalamet said. “It must imply something about my character that I didn’t enjoy just standing around smiling for five hours in front of a camera.”
7. For his role in “Call Me By Your Name,” he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. At 22, he was the third youngest nominee ever. On the subject of a sequel, Chalamet said, “We made the first movie in the humble hope that fans of the books would go and see it. I would love to do a sequel, that challenge is really exciting to me.”
8. His first Instagram post was of NYC pigeons. No, we’re not joking:
9. Speaking of Instagram, he has a huge following. As i-D explains, “The internet is obsessed with him. There are hashtags dedicated to documenting his every move; from #timotheechalametdoingthings to #timotheechalamethair. Earlier this year, the Instagram account @chalametinart went viral by photoshopping Timothée into famous works of art including Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.”
10. He loves Kid Cudi and freaked out when Cudi called him his favorite artist right now:
UHMMM OKAY STRIKE ME THE FUCK DOWN https://t.co/KcUS0avkDn
— Timothée Chalamet (@RealChalamet) March 27, 2018
ADHXJKSDKSHKXNFUDKDNXHKDM
— Timothée Chalamet (@RealChalamet) March 27, 2018
STAN LEVEL 368483 https://t.co/9zcs9CFB5x
— Timothée Chalamet (@RealChalamet) March 27, 2018
11. He’s worried his moment in Hollywood is fleeting. “Fuck yeah, while it’s going on, I’m going to enjoy every second of this — it sounds cheesy, but I think of myself as an actor third, an artist second, and a fan first,” Chalamet told GQ. “But I have genuine fear of having the inability to replicate this moment again.
12. From that same GQ profile: “Grandma was a Broadway dancer. Mom was a Broadway dancer and actress. Timothée’s sister is an actress and ballet dancer living in Paris. The performance strain, and the Jewishness, runs down the matrilineal side.”
13. In “Beautiful Boy,” his character’s dad is played by Steve Carell. “I’ve had some great movie parents, I’ve gotta say. A lot of great movie dads, too. Michael Stulhbarg, Steve Carell, Matthew McConaughey,” Chalamet said.
14. The highlight of the 2019 awards season was his blossoming friendship with Glenn Close:
15. Okay, one more “CMBYN” fun-fact: He really appreciates the Jewishness of the film. “It wasn’t something I could verbalize or understand in a conscious domain, but rather, there’s something inexplicable about [Jewishness] that is a driving force in the film. There’s something tangible in watching it and doing it.”
16. He’s kinda numb to his social media ubiquity. “We were the guinea pigs for that first wave of social media. There comes a process of self-evaluation and self-recognition that is comparable to a mirror being put in front of you. Generations past never had to do that kind of critical assessment, what does my MySpace font and layout say about me? … My life has always been on there. Eventually you just develop a kind of numbness to it.”
17. He was in Woody Allen’s latest film “A Rainy Day In New York” and in a statement, said he would be donating his salary from the film to Time’s Up, RAINN, and the LGBT Center in New York. “I am learning that a good role isn’t the only criteria for accepting a job,” he wrote. Read the full statement here. We stan an ally!
18. Hey Alma readers have very mixed feelings on his red carpet style.
And now, because we love Hey Alma readers so much (and Timothée Chalamet), please enjoy a BONUS 18 things:
19. He’s hosted SNL twice (though we’re sure he’s bound to host more), and has been in some pretty memorable sketches. Take “Tiny Horse,” for example:
20. And let’s remember “Rap Roundtable“:
21. But most importantly, who can forget his Troye Sivan impression?
@peacock My Halloween costume was obviously Timothée Chalamet as Troye Sivan. @nbcsnl is streaming now on Peacock. #TimotheeChalamet #TroyeSivan #SNL
22. He was almost in “Barbie.” “I was also going to do a speciality cameo with Timmy [Chalamet], and both [he and Saoirse Ronan] couldn’t do it and I was so annoyed,” Gerwig said during the movie’s press tour.
23. He has called “Wonka” “a throwback to LaGuardia,” referring to the performing arts high school he attended. “We’re telling a story here. This isn’t, like, athletic naturalism. It’s a shot of earnestness and sincerity, without the cynicism or dread or all the stuff we’re exhausted by,” he explained to GQ.
24. We need to take a second to recognize this incredible outfit he wore to the 2022 Venice Film Festival.
25. Timothée and “Dune” director Denis Villeneuve spoke French onset together. “It was the way that we were able to find intimacy in the chaos. It was our protected landscape. A second secret language,” Villeneuve explained to the New York Times.
26. He’s been dating beauty mogul and reality star Kylie Jenner since early 2023. You can read a full timeline of their relationship here.
27. Remember the sister we mentioned earlier? That would be “Sex Lives of College Girls” actress Pauline Chalamet! In the fall of 2024, Pauline gave birth to her first child, making Timothée an uncle.
28. He’s playing Jewish folk music legend Bob Dylan in the biopic “A Complete Unknown,” releasing Dec. 25, 2024. Recently, Bob gave Timothée his blessing.
29. Timothée was initially only supposed to have four months to prepare to play Bob Dylan. Instead, because of the pandemic and the SAG-AFTRA strike, he had five years. During that time he worked with a vocal coach, a guitar teacher, a dialect coach, a movement coach and a harmonica coach.
30. In the movie, he is really playing and singing the songs live! “You can’t re-create it in the studio,” he told Rolling Stone. “If I was singing to a prerecorded guitar, then all of a sudden I could hear the lack of an arm movement in my voice.”
31. Timothée wept after filming a scene in which Bob Dylan performs “Song to Woody.”
32. You can listen to him talk more about how he became Bob Dylan here:
33. He showed up to his own look alike contest!
34. After hearing that the organizer of the contest was fined $500 for unlawful gathering, Timothée tried to pay the fine. By the time his people reached out to the organizer, however, the fine had already been paid by event invite app Partiful. (The event was organized on the app.)
“They basically [said] like, ‘We thought it was awesome. Thanks so much,’” organizer Anthony Po told People Magazine. Timothée Chalamet, the mensch that you are.
35. Want more Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest? Here you go!
36. One of his next projects is a Josh Safdie film “Marty Supreme.” In it, he plays a 50s ping-pong champion based on Jewish table tennis champion Marty Reisman. Based on photos and footage from the set (and the fact that his character’s mother will be played by Fran Drescher), it’s clear that this character is Jewish. Can you spot the Star of David?
@estantestelar ele correndo essa rua mil vezes, lindo!! 😻💘🫶 #timotheechalamet #martysupreme #nyc #movies #a24
