Awards season is a cold, lonely road when you’re a fan of Jewish actor Timothée Chalamet. Since his breakout role as Elio the queer Italian-Jewish teenager in 2017’s “Call Me By Your Name,” Chalamet has been nominated for major awards 23 times. Excluding his still-pending Oscar nomination for playing Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” Little Timmy Tim has not won a single time. Until last night, that is.
At the 2025 Screen Actors’ Guild awards last night, Timothée took home the award for Best Lead Actor in a Motion Picture, beating out Adrien Brody for the Actor statuette. “I’ll start by thanking my mother, who I’m here with tonight,” Timothée began his speech as the camera panned to his mom Nicole Flender clapping in the audience. “I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me, but the truth is this was five years of my life,” he said. “I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan.”
“I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” Timothée went on. “I’m as inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis and Marlon Brando and Viola Davis as I am by Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps.” So that’s the “sad little speech,” as he called it on SNL, that Timothée Chalamet has had in his pocket for the last four awards seasons.
But what did Timothée’s mom say to him immediately after his first major award win? Well, it turns out it was peak Jewish mom. “She said, ‘Don’t forget to fold your laundry.'” Timothée told EXTRA. Then he jokingly added, “And I was like, really? This moment? This moment I just won this award and I’m 29-years-old and you’re chastising me, still?”
“Leave it to your mom to remind you what’s real,” reporter Melvin Robert offered in response.
Look, we all know the overbearing Jewish mom trope is just that: a stereotype. But the fact that Timothée’s mom couldn’t help but remind her son to fold his laundry even at an awards show feels very much in line with the essence of Nicole’s New York Jewish immigrant ancestry. Plus, given just how much Timothée’s celebrity has sky-rocketed over the last few years, he absolutely needs some grounding. Meanwhile, for Nicole’s part, she talked to red carpet reporters about helping her son create the Lil Timmy Tim persona that we know and love.
No shade to Kylie Jenner, Timothée’s girlfriend and more recent awards show date, but we need to see more of his mom on the red carpet for moments like these! Fingers crossed we see her at the Oscars. In the meantime: Timothée Chalamet, go fold your laundry.
