How Chalamet is playing fame game on his own terms

Katie Rosseinsky, The Independent

At the Screen Actors Guild Awards back in February, Timothée Chalamet laid out his mission statement with a bracing, earnest clarity. “I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” the actor told a room full of fellow performers, after accepting the Best Actor trophy for his portrayal of a young Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown. “I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats.” Acting may be a profession of rampant egos, but it is surprisingly rare to hear an actor set out his ambitions, his desire to be the best, in such a straightforward way. As Chalamet put it, his industry peers “don’t usually talk like that”. Their awards speeches tend to be full of self-deprecation, carefully curated relatability or attempts at positioning themselves as some kind of underdog, rather than striving for more recognition, status or fame.

Naturally, then, Chalamet’s speech proved divisive. Was it endearingly honest? Was it an abrasive display of self-confidence that bordered on self-aggrandisement? Would a female star on Chalamet’s level have the audacity to say something similar about her career trajectory? Or had Timmy just been listening to too many motivational podcasts?

Fast-forward towards the end of this year, though, and Chalamet seems to be making significant strides towards the “greatness” he spoke of. He has received rave reviews across the board for his performance as a mid-century table tennis pro in Josh Safdie’s new movie Marty Supreme, which lands in UK cinemas on Boxing Day.

“If Marty Supreme exists to prove that Timothée Chalamet could have easily kicked it with the New Hollywood icons of the Seventies, the Harvey Keitels and the Gena Rowlandses, then point proven,” The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote. “He’s truly one of our greatest talents.” The Guardian hailed him as “a smash”, while The Times suggested his “showboating turn” is “bound to snag an Oscar nomination, possibly even the Best Actor award”.

Still, at this point in his (admittedly brief) working life, compliments like these are almost a given. We’re talking, after all, about a star who has already managed to pick up two Oscar nominations (for his breakout role in Call Me By Your Name and for his turn as Dylan in A Complete Unknown) before reaching 30. That is no mean feat when the Academy has historically prioritised older male performers. But what’s arguably more intriguing is Chalamet’s highly strategic – and highly unconventional — approach to playing the fame game at this crucial point in his career.

At promotional events for Marty Supreme, Chalamet has been flanked by a group of men wearing massive orange ping pong balls over their heads, like a tangerine guard of honour. Earlier this month, he released a very meta parody video on social media, in which he played an ego-tripping version of himself dominating a Zoom marketing meeting for the movie, suggesting increasingly unviable stunts (how about painting the Statue of Liberty orange? Or dropping ping pong balls from a branded blimp). According to a Vogue interview, he spent six months working on co-designing a line of merch for the film, apparently at least partially bankrolling the venture himself. It was worth it: the branded hoodies and jackets have been worn by the likes of Kendall Jenner, the Biebers and various sports stars, becoming the unlikely viral streetwear hit of the season.

It is hard to imagine, say, the more fame-wary Paul Mescal — who at 29 years old and with an Oscar nomination under his belt is probably Chalamet’s closest equivalent in this year’s Academy Awards race — doing any of the above.