Timothée Chalamet recently opened up about his struggles early in his career, revealing that an agent once advised him to gain weight to fit Hollywood’s typical image.
Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Chalamet explained that this advice came as he auditioned for major films like The Maze Runner and Divergent, which were hugely popular then.
He said, “If I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent, things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body,”
He remembered an agent telling him to put on weight, though the suggestion was made gently and non-pushy.
Chalamet said, “I had an agent that called me and said, ‘You got to put on weight,’ basically, not aggressively, but you know.”
Rather than trying to change himself to fit those expectations, Chalamet carved his own path.
He succeeded in smaller, more intimate films like Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, and Little Women.
He explained. “I found my way into these very personalized movies. They were lower-budget but very—there’s no other word for it—personable, and that’s where I found my rhythm, my confidence.”
Chalamet is set to play music legend Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown.
He also shared he feels a connection to Dylan’s own industry struggles and how the singer faced challenges in keeping a rock band together because of financial hardships experienced by his friends in Minnesota.
He added, “Bob wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll star — Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley — that was the sort of, depending on your point of view, the sort of rice crispy pop, rock & roll music that was saturated, you know, marketed to kids in the late ’50s. Equally, I wanted to be a big movie actor.”
A Complete Unknown is set to be released in theatres on December 25, 2024.
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