18 Things to Know About Jewish Actor Timothée Chalamet

The French and Jewish actor is the also the internet's boyfriend.

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 and Beautiful Boy, and he’s set to be in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and a Wes Anderson film. Put simply: He’s everywhere.

So it’s time for 18 things to know, duh.

1. His name is pronounced Tim-oh-tay, not Timothy.

2. His dad is French and his mom is Jewish. His mom, Nicole, is his go-to awards season date.

3. 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.”

4. 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.”

5. 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.”

6. 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.”

7. His first Instagram post was of NYC pigeons. No, we’re not joking:

8. 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.”

9. He loves Kid Cudi and freaked out when Cudi called him his favorite artist right now:

10. 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.

11. 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.”

12. 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.

13. The highlight of the 2019 awards season is his blossoming friendship with Glenn Close:

14. And yes, he is still very close with CMBYN co-star (and fellow Jew) Armie Hammer: “I came of age as an actor during my time with Armie. The relationship that blossomed out of it is the most precious gift.”

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 — a film that may never be released — 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. Alma readers have very mixed feelings on his red carpet style.

Timothée

Bye!

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