Timothée Chalamet: An old soul, a thinking man’s sex symbol and a fashion icon

By Ruben V. Nepales

LOS ANGELES – Timothee Chalamet has been variously described as a “thinking man’s sex symbol” (by actress Gwyneth Paltrow), a daring fashion icon or an old soul.

But one thing Chalamet definitely is – he’s one of the finest actors of his generation, daring and eclectic in his choice of roles, each of which he performs with subtlety and versatility.

The man broke our hearts and, admit it, made us tear up just watching him in that final scene by the fireplace in Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name.” He came very close to making history as the youngest best actor winner in the Oscars for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown.”

Born in New York to a French father and a Russian-Austrian-Jewish mother, who danced on Broadway (from whom he probably got his performing talent), Timothee, as a child, appeared in TV commercials and short films. He made his stage debut and guested on television shows.

But being blown away by Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” made him seriously pursue acting. So he applied and was accepted at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which inspired the film and musical, “Fame.” A little footnote – he dated Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes Leon, for a year while they attended LaGuardia.

After high school, Timothee went to Columbia University and then to New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. He dropped out to go after an acting career.

Looking back at his education, Timothee said in our Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) conference in 2019, “I had a very idyllic performing arts high school experience. At 13, I got to step into a publicly funded art school drama program that showed me a way of life I didn’t know existed.

“I grew up in a building called Manhattan Plaza in New York. It’s an actors’ building but I saw a side of the industry. Let’s say, there, that’s paycheck to paycheck existence which is the reality for 98 percent of actors.”

He added, “That was starting to be my reality, too – working in commercials and print and stuff like that. But when I got to LaGuardia (High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts), the emphasis was taken totally out of the idea that this (acting) is for red carpets or things like that. But rather, this is a real craft that can be worked on, developed and you can get better at and as a means of therapy, not in a cheesy way, but you can just get that energy out and across any art form.

“Anyway, I graduated from LaGuardia. That’s where I was very lucky. I was able to keep in touch with professors at LaGuardia who kept me focused, kept me feeling like I could do this and that I had a shot at a career. Whenever I didn’t have that, a man named Harry Shifman and a woman named Sandy Faison really kept me feeling like I could do this. Because I went to a very academic college that didn’t have drama programs.”

Serendipitously, while Timothee made his feature film acting debut in Jason Reitman’s “Men, Women and Children,” he started making an impression when he appeared as Cooper, Matthew McConaughey’s son, in Christopher’s “Interstellar.”

Timothee made his breakthrough in Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name” where he unforgettably played Elio, an American teen living in Italy who falls in love with Oliver (Armie Hammer), a 24-year-old American. Critics raved about his performance which led to his first Oscar and Golden Globe best actor nominations. His other lauded performances include his turns in “Wonka,” “Bones and All,” “Lady Bird” and “Beautiful Boy.”

The New Yorker with the soulful eyes – his strongest assets as a thespian – bagged his second best actor citations for his nuanced portrayal of rock icon Bob in “A Complete Unknown.”

Timothee’s achievement in the film is that he made Bob, famously enigmatic, a fully fleshed-out human being who is still a mystery, yes, but relatable. Even when the actor’s expressive eyes were hidden by Ray Ban Caribbean sunglasses that Bob loved to wear even indoors, Timothée is a riveting presence.

What was further impressive about Timothee in that 2024 biographical drama is that he used his own voice and sang live in the musical portions. And to top that, he actually played the guitar and harmonica himself. Timothee, who spent years preparing for the role, learned to play those instruments during the pandemic.

Asked at what point in the rehearsals did he feel prepared to play a young Bob, Timothee answered in my video interview with him last December, “I don’t know if I ever felt ready. Every role is a little bit like jumping off a cliff, hoping to land in the hands of your director.

“In the fortunate case here, I was working with the immensely talented James Mangold, who is very capable and has directed the fantastic music biopic ‘Walk the Line’ with Joaquin Phoenix. He’s obviously very experienced in this kind of filmmaking.

“So, I don’t know if I was ever ready but once we got going, my confidence in the role grew.”

“No, I didn’t,” the New Yorker replied on whether he knew that his live vocals singing those iconic Bob songs would be kept for the final cut. “It was a battle to get to sing live because it’s much safer to use the pre-records, stuff we worked on in LA in a music studio for six months. So, I didn’t know I was going to get to do it live but I felt it was important to try each time.

“And it’s ultimately a battle I won because all the vocals you hear in the movie are live, the guitar playing is live, the harmonica is live, and the piano is live. It’s so much more gratifying. It makes me prouder of the work.”

On his director, James Mangold, Timothee gushed, “I love working with James, man. I felt like I was in great hands with him. He does a masterful music biopic.

“He does a great superhero movie, too, like ‘Logan’ or a great medical drama like ‘Girl Interrupted’ and a great Western, ‘3:10 to Yuma.’ So, he’s an incredible, incredible filmmaker.”

Late this year, Timothee, 29, will be seen having “a lot of sex” with Gwyneth Paltrow, 52, in Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme.” “Gwyneth said to Vanity Fair, “We have a lot of sex in this movie. There’s a lot – a lot.” She also quipped about filming many steamy sex scenes with the actor: “I was like, ‘Okay, great. I’m 109 years old. You’re 14.’ ”

On the set of the movie where Timothee tackles the title role of a young man who goes to hell and back in search of greatness, he and Gwyneth engage in “a lot of vulnerable positions,” as the actress was quoted by VF.

In the article, Gwyneth also said she and Timothee waved off the services of an intimacy coordinator: “I was like, ‘Girl, I’m from the era where you get naked, you get in bed, the camera’s on’…We said, ‘I think we’re good. You can step a little bit back.’ ”

Probably based on her experience working with Timothee, Gwyneth declared, “He’s such a thinking man’s sex symbol.”

The actor has also become an iconoclastic fashion icon, daring and confident in his sartorial choices, from the backless red halter top and pants he wore in the 2022 Cannes Film Festival to embroidered suits and harem pants. He and Kylie Jenner, whom he is dating, make a glamorous couple on the red carpet.

For pushing fashion boundaries, Timothee, in 2022, became the first man to grace solo the cover of British Vogue’s print edition in the publication’s 100-year-plus history.

Although he’s still like a kid sometimes, Timothee is often described as an old soul. On this description of him as a man who seems mature and wise beyond his years, he commented in our 2018 HFPA press conference, “I really oscillate.  I think it’s just a consequence of being a young person, period. But I really don’t know. For all things like movie and press stuff, I feel like I have been able to become more of an adult.

“But as it relates to the actual acting, the best lesson I ever got was just failing consistently in high school and drama high school and being terrible a thousand times.  So you always try to keep a childlike attitude towards that.”

Timothee shares this old soul essence with his “Dune” character, Paul Atreides. That’s why he was perfect and beguiling in director Denis Villeneuve’s first two “Dune” films. He will play Frank Herbert’s complex protagonist again in the coming “Dune: Messiah.”

An old soul? A thinking man’s sex symbol? Or a fashion icon? Timothee is all that and more.