In order to provide the most insightful Q&A during the final Oscar voting, live on stage in front of an audience that included Academy members, Timothée Chalamet sat down to record the basketball-focused podcast Take an interest in the gamehosted by NBA legends LeBron James and Steve Nash. For any other candidate this year, the choice would have seemed out of character, distracting, and ultimately confusing. to Marty Supreme star, it was a natural culmination of another unique award. Chalamet does things his own way.
The merits of his style have been under scrutiny for two years now, as he competes for a Best Actor Oscar for the second season in a row. (Last year, it was up to Completely anonymous And lost to Brutal(Adrien Brody.) He kept things interesting. During the election campaign, Chalamet crashed similar contests and appeared in music videos to dissipate — or inflame? – Rumors of rapper alter ego, EsDeeKid. He mostly avoided the typical awards press while giving lengthy interviews with the likes of Theo Vaughn and Cody Rhodes. He played basketball with Adam Sandler and the Los Angeles high schoolers. He hosted a town hall with Matthew McConaughey for Austin College students. We’ve been inundated with real balloons, fake Zoom meetings, and torrents of orange.
As far as celebrity marketing is concerned, Chalamet shows ingenuity. Combined with his talent as an actor, his innovative, often over-the-top promotional strategies helped make him the most bankable movie star of his generation – proving that a risky collection of films, whether original or relying on intellectual property, could still make a splash in theaters. High wire Marty Supreme It has grossed over $173 million worldwide and counting, becoming A24’s highest-grossing film of all time domestically and internationally. Biography of Bob Dylan Completely anonymous He performed almost as well. And all this means nothing Sand dunes or Wonkaan expensive IP remix that was critically acclaimed and at the box office. At a recent retrospective of the Gen Z star organized by American Cinema, icons like Denis Villeneuve, Edward Norton and Christopher Nolan showed up to support them.
It’s partly for this reason that Chalamet enters this Oscar season, even at just 30 years old, with a compelling narrative that carries all the way to the end. His contributions have been undeniably enormous at a time when existential concerns about the future of the company are growing by the day. Add to that the strong reception for Marty Supreme And his electric performance — which earned rave reviews, a slew of critics’ awards and nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and, of course, Best Actor — and a frontrunner was born. Winning both a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award didn’t change things.
Then the industry intervened. Neither the BAFTAs nor the Actor’s Awards – whose membership overlaps with the Academy – awarded Chalamet the best actor award, although each group embraced it. Marty With tons of nominations. The last Oscar winner in this category to lose with both BAFTA and SAG-AFTRA was Mystic RiverSean Penn, over 20 years ago.
So, while this very messy race is still up for grabs for Chalamet, it has been honored by BAFTA I swearRobert Arameo, who wasn’t even eligible for the Oscars this cycle – the odds are no longer in his favor. (Oscar voting closes Thursday at 5 p.m. PT.)
Is this because Chalamet relentlessly adheres to his campaign rules? maybe. Voters can be stifling about how they want to see a candidate work in the room; I’ve heard some people say that recently, and that sentiment was widespread last year, when Chalamet (he beat That actor award — and he gave an infamous ambition speech). While Chalamet has hit more typical points than his last outing, my colleague Scott Feinberg reported Sunday that Chalamet’s “bravado” has delayed some. The “disturbing” label is bandied about. The old rules still apply: No amount of fluffy conversation and media stunts can make up for a few hours of cheerful conversation and typical verbatim talk.
Whether they should is another matter. For a new generation of moviegoers, Chalamet’s tactics are exciting — and even motivating when it comes to actually buying a movie ticket. both of them Completely anonymous and Marty Supreme It hits theaters around Christmas, just as Oscar season fully begins, thus blurring the lines of release and awards promotion. Chalamet’s work behind the scenes preceded any opening. He was also nominated for an Academy Award this year for Best Picture as a producer. I’m told that Chalamet is still traveling the world for openings Martynow in markets such as Tokyo and Beijing. The movie It hits over 800 screens this weekend. You can bet it will find some new movie fans.
This is obviously a good thing, but the Academy has a long-standing relationship with young movie stars who tend to their fame and cache. In the 97-year history of the Academy Awards, more than 30 women have won Best Actress before they were 30 years old. At the same time, only one man has ever done so, and only one man.brutal Adrien Brody, win for pianist At age 29. Big stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Will Smith won in their 40s and 50s after decades of nominations. If Chalamet withdraws on March 15, he will be the second-youngest winner ever in the category.
It is also interesting that although a real wild card remains Secret agentWagner Moura – won a Globe alongside Chalamet, and was not nominated by BAFTA or SAG-AFTRA – SinnersMichael B. Jordan emerged as Chalamet’s primary competition after winning the actor award.
To some extent, they run parallel: Jordan is similarly an original box office success story and has previously headlined the relaunch of his successful franchise with Doctrine. But he’s also about 10 years older than Chalamet, has traveled the ring in a much more conventional manner and has never been nominated for an Oscar to this point. For the academy, this is a relatively familiar and attractive package.
Chalamet represents a less comfortable path for the industry — an anointing of the celebrity kid, an endorsement of a set of campaign standards that don’t quite match her own. This is a startling tension at this particular moment: Chalamet has proven the value of his bold, defiant style, just as Hollywood searches for any savior it can find. This leaves the ball, so to speak, in the academy’s court.
