When Timothée Chalamet transformed into Willy Wonka for the first time, all those who love the actor on Twitter collectively gasped, myself included. As he rocked the iconic purple jacket along with his top hat and cane, curiosity for the movie and thirst for the actor spread like wildfire across social media. Now the Dune actor is responding to those thirst tweets.
It feels like if Chalamet does anything it goes viral, from his appearance in that iconic red outfit at the Venice Film Festival to him commenting that he feels “societal collapse is in the air,” and that’s just in the last few weeks. When photos of him as Wonka dropped fans lost their minds over the young actor, causing people to tweet things like this: “In this one, Wonka fucks.” When asked about this exact tweet in an interview with Vogue Chalamet laughed and responded with:
You know what’s really funny about that is it’s so misleading. This movie is so sincere, it’s so joyous.
Though, we know little about Wonka, “joyous” feels like a good word to describe it. Especially considering the director behind the project. Helming the film is Paul King, the director of the wonderful masterpiece that is Paddington and more importantly Paddington 2, a film that had no negative reviews, and now has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. These films are some of the most wholesome and sincere movies I’ve ever seen and I think it’s safe to say King will bring a similar vibe to his take on the Roald Dahl classic.
While I wasn’t surprised to hear about King’s involvement with the movie, because “joyous” classic characters are right up his alley, I was surprised to hear about Chalamet’s casting. The actor is known for his massive role in the sci-fi epic Dune, his breakout performance in the romance Call Me By Your Name and soon he’ll be co-starring in a coming-of-age romantic horror movie that includes cannibalism called Bones & All. These are all pretty serious and not alike at all. But, the actor has made a point to shake things up by taking wildly different roles, as he said:
I hate to say it, but the dream as an artist is to throw whatever the fuck you want at the wall, you know? And I guess what I’m realizing is that one’s personal life, one’s adult life, can be quite boring and the artist’s life can still be extraordinary.
Chalamet sure knows how to keep things interesting, and has worked with some incredible artists. From the ensemble cast of Dune to being in projects with directors like Wes Anderson and Greta Gerwig, he has worked with the best. While taking the mantel of Wonka from Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp is daunting, I think he’s prepared to do it. He for sure has the looks for it, as Twitter has made abundantly clear. He also has the talent and the charm to pull this off. It will be exciting to see his performance as the iconic chocolatier next year.
According to the 2023 movie schedule, Wonka won’t be released until December 15. So, while we wait to see this new “world of pure imagination” we can take a look back at some of Chalamet’s best movies and continue to thirst over his red carpet looks and Wonka photos.