Timothée Chalamet has revealed he lost out on roles in action franchises like “Maze Runner” and “Divergent” after being told “You don’t have the right body.”
The film star, who now plays the lead role in blockbuster sci-fi series “Dune,” said he even tried to put on weight in order to change his physical appearance but it didn’t work.
“I would always get the same feedback, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body,’” Chalamet told Rolling Stone U.K. “I had an agent call me once and say, ‘I’m tired of getting the same feedback. We’re gonna stop submitting you for these bigger projects, because you’re not putting on weight.’ I was trying to put on weight. I couldn’t! I basically couldn’t. My metabolism or whatever the fuck couldn’t do it.”
It was those repeated rejections, he admitted, that led him to choosing smaller indie projects such as “Call Me By Your Name” that eventually brought him to global attention. “I was knocking on one door that wouldn’t open,” he told the magazine, referring to action films. “So I went to what I thought was a more humble door, but actually ended up being explosive for me.”
Chalamet is on the cover of Rolling Stone U.K. this month to promote his upcoming project, “A Complete Unknown,” in which he plays legendary musician Bob Dylan. Although he admitted to the magazine that before the film he’d been much more into hip-hop., even harbouring what he describes as “dead-on-arrival aspirations of rapping,” stepping into Dylan’s shoes for the past few years as he prepared for the role has turned him into a devoted fan.
As part of his preparation, the magazine reported, he worked with a vocal coach, guitar teacher, dialect coach, movement coach and harmonica tutor. Such was his devotion to the role, his co-stars including Ed Norton and Monica Barbaro revealed he kept mostly to himself on set in order to fully immerse himself in the world of Dylan.
“It was something I would go to sleep panicked about, losing a moment of discovery as the character — no matter how pretentious that sounds — because I was on my phone or because of any distraction,” said Chalamet. “I had three months of my life to play Bob Dylan, after five years of preparing to play him. So while I was in it, that was my eternal focus. He deserved that and then more. God forbid I missed a step because I was being Timmy. I could be Timmy for the rest of my life!”
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