When Timothée Chalamet accepted the SAG Award for Greatest Actor Sunday night time, he shocked the A-list room into silence.
In a second of pure New York bravado, the 29-year-old star controversially introduced, “I want to be one of the greats.”
The megawatt names that the “A Complete Unknown” star needs to be spoken in the identical breath as?
“I’m as inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando and Viola Davis as I am by Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps,” he mentioned.
Nicely, then.
That recitation of his imaginative and prescient board was the most recent transfer in one of many strangest — and most hypnotically watchable — awards campaigns in reminiscence.
No staid Arts & Leisure profiles for this man. As an alternative, he’s staged bizarre and foolish stunts galore — everywhere in the world.
The absurdity has stored him within the public eye with out the standard yawn-inducing, perfunctory interviews and comatose photograph ops that make award season really feel like a black-tie morgue.
And, as his SAG win confirmed, the visibility has stored the younger actor as a formidable contender in an Oscar race that had beforehand been “The Brutalist” star Adrien Brody’s to lose. Right here comes Timmy.
Setting the tone for months of insanity, again in October, he crashed a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest in Washington Sq. Park in New York Metropolis.
Swoopy-haired males arrived in Greenwich Village dressed as Willy Wonka, Elio (from “Name Me By Your Title) and Bob Dylan. No one knew the real article would present up, although, and craziness ensued. The occasion was dispersed by cops and the equivalent organizers have been fined.
After that information story exploded, movie star look-alike contests turned an enormous development.
There have been positively no Timmy doppelgängers on ESPN’s Faculty GameDay, which Chalamet surprisingly guested on two months later. The actor confused soccer aficionados when he appeared as a commentator — and truly knew what he was speaking about.
“Timothee Chalamet being a real deal college football fan, being a SMU fan, and knowing about all these teams was so crazy to me,” wrote Ringer’s Chris Vernon on X (previously Twitter). “I thought just invited cause famous, but he was a legit great guest picker on College Gameday.”
And now, for one thing fully completely different. Later in December, Chalamet live-streamed a 14-minute interpretive dance from a dimly-lit warehouse to “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas.
As Bob Dylan footage was projected, he smashed a guitar and ripped off his tank high.
Nothing made any sense. I liked it.
In fact, there are the outfits. Chalamet has donned an eccentric Dylan-inspired search for each award present and premiere this season. Whereas sporting one on the London debut of “A Complete Unknown,” he rode a motorbike to the pink carpet and acquired a $79 positive for parking it improperly.
In January, the actor did double-duty on “SNL” because the host and the musical visitor in the identical episode. On the present, he carried out Dylan’s lesser-known 1963 music “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” and jumped into the iTunes high 30 in a single day.
Like some prolonged inside joke from “Arrested Development,” he even introduced the Chalamet look-alikes on “SNL” with him.
None of this lunacy can be practically as interesting had Chalamet not been extraordinary in his film. He’s, and so the actor is having an excellent time doing one thing the general public loves: entertaining us offscreen, too.
Will all of it repay on the Oscars on Sunday?
Arduous to say. Brody remains to be the favourite, having already received the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Critics’ Alternative Award.
However 17 of the previous 20 SAG Greatest Actor winners have gone on to win the identical prize on the Academy Awards. He may very effectively clinch it.
In the end, Chalamet’s “I want to be one of the greats” speech, abrupt although it might have been, and his press tour have left a definite impression — that he in all probability can be one of many greats.
Begin with the truth that he’s not even 30, is already a two-time Greatest Actor Oscar nominee and has starred in seven Greatest Image-nominated motion pictures.
And, of everyone within the Academy Award performing classes, Chalamet is the most important field workplace draw: “Dune: Part Two” and “A Complete Unknown” have grossed a mixed $820 million on the worldwide field workplace.
The acclaim, the cash and the youthful enjoyable all add as much as a rarity in 2025: An actual film star.
