I don’t think it’s an over-the-top comment if I write that Timothée Chalamet is one of the top young talents in Hollywood today. However, the actor has a tendency to make headlines for the things he does while promoting his movies as often as he does for the performances themselves. Chalamet’s public persona, from opening up about wanting to “be one of the greats’ to getting candid about “chasing Oscars” could certainly come off to some as pretentious, but he says that’s not actually the sort of person he wants to be seen as.
Chalamet is a performer who clearly takes the craft of acting very seriously. However, when it comes to performances, he doesn’t try to overthink things too much. In a recent Q&A for Marty Supreme (via Variety), Chalamet referred to what he called ”method energy” as something he tries to have, which for him is just keeping within the feeling of the movie during production. He explained…
I feel like Method energy, that’s kind of my thing. So that just means being in the tone of the film … I think anything too calculated — some actors are like that, that’s not really my style.
A great deal has been said and written about the concept of method acting, and it’s clear that even among actors who use it, method acting is handled differently by pretty much everyone. For some, it might literally involve trying to be a character even off the set of a TV project or movie. Others, like Christian Bale, just use whatever movie accent is applicable on set. The latter sounds a little more like what Timothée Chalamet is talking about.
Of course, his “method” extends beyond, well, acting. He’s also responsible for other promotional shenanigans, and those can be seen in varying lights. Whether it’s standing on top of the Las Vegas Sphere or appearing on every red carpet wearing only orange, Chalamet has been getting a reputation for the way he promotes his movies, as well.
Now, the actor says it isn’t just promotion. It’s just him trying different things to connect with the audience, which is his ultimate goal. He continued…
This is the new way of doing stuff. I’m trying to reach audiences, you know. I don’t want to be in the pretentious in-crowd. ‘Marty Supreme’ in America had the least frequent moviegoing audience this year — people that weren’t going to see everything. That’s my favorite feedback on the movie. So the most pretentious answer I could give you, which I actually honestly feel, is that it’s not marketing or promotion. That sounds like a gimmick, and this is not a gimmick. This is coming from my heart and my soul.
While the exact methods may change, it sounds like we can expect to see Timothée Chalamet continue with the sort of “stunts” he’s been pulling on and off of film sets. While some will certainly continue to see the actor as “pretentious,” as long as those actions have the desired effect of getting people to go to the movies, I get the feeling he’s probably fine with it.