Timothée Chalamet’s promotional marketing campaign for his new movie Marty Supreme has been somewhat unconventional to date. Staged Zoom periods. Promotional blimp work. A variety of chatter a couple of jacket no person should purchase. When Chalamet did The Tonight Present with Jimmy Fallon, he was flanked by an entourage of individuals with big orange ping-pongs for heads. The technique has labored—the movie is doing effectively on the field workplace—however Chalamet’s power has vibed uncomfortably with the fusty environment of awards season campaigning, the place glad-handing with showbiz retirees and consuming rubber rooster at galas continues to be very a lot the norm.
Chalamet appears to have clocked that dissonance, and his speech at tonight’s Golden Globes (the place he gained for Finest Efficiency by a Male Actor in a Movement Image — Musical or Comedy) was tellingly subdued regardless of the present’s notoriety for messy, drunken speech-giving. “My dad instilled in me a spirit of gratitude rising up: All the time be thankful for what you’ve gotten,” he stated, after tossing off a number of jokes in regards to the film’s crowded solid and the presence of Shark Tank’s “Mr. Fantastic,” Kevin O’Leary, who performs a villainous businessman in Marty Supreme. “It’s allowed me to go away this ceremony previously empty-handed, my head held excessive, grateful simply to be right here, however I’d be mendacity if I didn’t say these moments didn’t make this second that a lot sweeter.”
It was a superbly pretty sentiment that simply sounded a tad jarring coming from a star who has been delightfully un-humble through the years. After some noteworthy supporting turns as a teen actor, Chalamet burst to fame on the age of 21 with Name Me By Your Identify. Since then, he has grown into a novel A-lister, discovering a wide range of big-budget tasks that match his skinny body and delicate display screen presence, amongst them the Dune movies, Wonka, and the Bob Dylan biopic A Full Unknown. He has each motive to swagger, however that’s simply not one thing that occurs at award reveals, the place fake-humble shock is all the time the order of the day.
That’s what made Chalamet’s techniques final yr, when he was campaigning for A Full Unknown, stick out so sorely. “I do know we’re in a subjective enterprise, however the fact is, I’m actually in pursuit of greatness,” he stated when he gained the SAG Award for Finest Actor. “I do know individuals don’t often speak like that, however I wish to be one of many greats. I’m impressed by the greats.” He then threw out some names that encourage him: Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando, Viola Davis, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps. It was memorable stuff, however Oscar pundits identified that whereas Chalamet was yapping like an ESPN speaking head, his rival Adrien Brody was working Hollywood events. Brody, ultimately, ended up with the Oscar for his flip in The Brutalist.
With Chalamet’s aggressive and surreal method to promoting Marty Supreme, it seemed like he was staying true to himself, whether or not or not Oscar voters might deal with it. However then eventually week’s Critics Selection Awards (one other televised present that serves as an Oscar predictor), a barely extra demure Chalamet took the stage upon profitable Finest Actor. He thanked his fellow nominees by title; he thanked Marty Supreme’s director Josh Safdie; he thanked his accomplice, Kylie Jenner, saying, “I really like you. I couldn’t do that with out you. Thanks from the underside of my coronary heart.”
Traditional stuff—and the type of stuff he’s averted. Chalamet didn’t actually highlight Jenner throughout final yr’s awards tour, however this yr she’s been entrance and middle, getting one other thank-you in the course of the Globes speech. Gone is the lovably hyped-up man pitching exasperated advertising and marketing executives about blimp leases. Within the parlance of political considering, he’s now pivoting to the middle after profitable the first. Provided that his most main competitors in Finest Actor might be coming from Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of One Battle After One other, it makes some historic sense, too. DiCaprio didn’t win an Oscar for many years, lacking for hits like The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and The Wolf of Wall Avenue. When he lastly collected, for The Revenant, it was by contritely taking part in the awards season recreation, going to the dinners, and giving many dutiful speeches acknowledging the work he’d finished to get to this second. Now, it could be Chalamet’s flip to do the identical.
