“This is a moment for Timothée Chalamet.” As quoted by VARIETY, actor Timothée Chalamet is at the center of Hollywood's box office in the first half of 2024. He's the face of recent hit releases Wonka and Dune: Part Two, which are currently in the top five of highest-grossing domestic titles in 2024. Both titles have also surpassed the $200 million milestone domestically, something no other titles released this year have done so far. In fact, no movie has topped $200 million at the domestic box office since Oppenheimer did it in early August during the Barbenheimer craze (BUSINESS INSIDER). Dune: Part Two has collected $81.5 million in its North American debut and it’s “the biggest opening weekend of the year and the largest (VARIETY)” since last October’s Taylor Swift concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour grossed $93 million.
His curly hair, deep green eyes, and signature swaying silhouette set against a breathtakingly green Italian backdrop. Timothée Chalamet's portrayal of Elio, a 17-year-old boy in Call Me By Your Name, is an image that remains an intuitive representation of the actor to this day. If we were to translate this image into language, it would be in the words of Denis Villeneuve, director of the Dune franchise. “I am always impressed by his beautiful vulnerability.” In Call Me By Your Name, Elio's lucidity and intimacy are made possible by Timothée Chalamet's “beautiful vulnerability.” But at the same time, Elio expresses his love with a palpable energy. It's Timothée Chalamet's performance, which delicately orchestrates the character's many layers, that transforms Elio's vulnerability into a form of vibrancy, rather than excessive anxiety or precariousness. A boy who expresses his fragile but surging love with every fiber of his being. It's easy for anyone to fall in love with Elio and Timothée Chalamet, and it's no wonder that both the movie and the actor have exploded in popularity. Since Call Me by Your Name, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in A Leading Role at the age of twenty-two, Timothée Chalamet has amassed an impressive filmography, working with directors like Luca Guadagnino, Greta Gerwig, and Wes Anderson. He went from an art-house darling to Hollywood’s most wanted without appearing in any of the superhero films, typified by the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“So many male stars in his position would have ditched the queer-coded image for action-movie wear as soon as possible.” As The Guardian notes, Timothée Chalamet, with his “beautiful vulnerability,” has created a filmography that maintains his distance from traditional masculinity even after he became a star. Nic in Beautiful Boy, Laurie in Little Women, and Lee in Bones and All are different characters, but they share a boyish sensitivity, delicacy, or sweetness. “I think we should do it, even if we are afraid. I say yes. It’s Laurie!” What Beth (Eliza Scanlen) says to her sisters in Little Women about Laurie is symbolic. In the movie, Laurie is the boy next door who hangs out with Beth and her three sisters and is fascinated by their energy. He approaches Beth's older sister, Jo (Saoirse Ronan), who comes to the ball but can't dance because her only dress is burned in the fireplace, and invites her to dance with him away from the crowd. Throughout the movie, Laurie listens to Jo and her sisters, who clearly have a world of their own, lends a helping hand when needed but doesn't show off, and expresses his feelings honestly but not rudely.
Like Laurie, Timothée Chalamet outside the movie is more of “the ideal boy next door,” which adds to the appeal. “His real life presence can be summarized by another: normal,” says REFINERY29, and this is made possible by the discovery of an unpretentiousness and honesty befitting his age that belies the aura of a sharp-silhouetted actor playing complex, sensitive characters. As an up-and-coming actor, he maintains a humble demeanor on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and says, “I was in two independent movies, and the fact that we're getting any sort of love on mainstream television shows. Thank you for highlighting these movies,” and expresses his excitement of meeting Oprah Winfrey backstage. On another show, he recalls how excited he was to attend the Golden Globes. He once famously said, “I remember seeing it and weeping, 60% because I was so moved by it, and 40% because I’d thought I was in the movie so much more than I am,” after watching Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. There's a certain embarrassment that comes with the teenage footage that's often brought up on talk shows, but he's able to generously laugh it off. Timothée Chalamet outside of the movies is also unapologetic about his feelings, but not in a rude way. It’s why he’s being defined as a new kind of Hollywood leading man, rejecting macho stereotypes in favor of a kinder, more wholesome delicacy, as The Guardian puts it. In Wonka, he convincingly portrays the character of Willy Wonka, who has previously been portrayed as forlorn and insane, as someone who becomes a protector and friend to a young child, Noodle (Calah Lane), and who forms an alternative family with people around him. It's a result of the gradual accumulation of images from the actor's own life and his filmography.
“He comes off more like a rock star than he does, you know, an Oscar-nominated actor,” says THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Timothée Chalamet is a star of Hollywood blockbusters, but he gets the same kind of fanfare as a rock star. However, he's the kind of man you don't often see in either Hollywood or rockstar circles. On the red carpet, he hasn't followed the standard men's suit tropes, wearing blazers on their own without a shirt or inner top, experimenting with bold colors and patterns, and occasionally sporting genderless outfits with back-plunging halter necks. “He’s still wearing the same sort of beautiful, gender-nonconforming, romanticized fashion that suits him best.” As quoted by The Guardian, Timothée Chalamet uses fashion trends to showcase his values and consistently maintains a sensible look and style that works for him. The depth of his acting, coupled with the flair he brings with his style, has given him a rockstar-like following. At the same time, his good-natured, down-to-earth persona helps to lift the typical shadow of the rock star, as if paying attention to the famous advice of Leonardo DiCaprio, “No hard drugs and no superhero movies.” Timothée Chalamet's views on traditional Western masculinity in an interview revealed that he is creating a type of man that is neither a Hollywood action star nor a rock star, but a Timothée Chalamet: “There isn’t a specific notion, or jean size, or muscle shirt, or affectation, or eyebrow raise, or dissolution, or drug use that you have to take part in to be masculine.” No wonder he’s described as follows by DAZED. “He is well-spoken, goofy, extremely talented, and incredibly well-dressed – what’s not to love?”
And finally, Dune 2 is the culmination of Timothée Chalamet's accumulated images and a turning point for both himself and the movie. “I'd very much like to be equal to you,” Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides says to Chani (Zendaya), a woman of the Fremen people and a great warrior, in Dune 2, as he expresses his feelings for her as a lover. In another scene, Chani tells Paul that she doesn't like her other name, “Shihaya,” and Paul accepts her opinion and agrees with her. The idea of expressing one’s feelings while respecting the other person seems obvious, but it's often overlooked in the media. Timothée Chalamet's image that has been built up over the years makes that respect evident. Paul from the Dune movies, whose ducal father was sacrificed for political reasons, runs away with his mother to join the oppressed Fremen on their planet. Coincidentally, he corresponds to the “savior” of the religious prophecies that unite the Fremen, which in turn is reminiscent of the “messianic” narratives that have been passed down in the West. These messianic beings often fall into the trap of being implied in many pop culture tropes as stereotypical masculine images of extraordinary but lonely men. But Dune's messiah, with his black curly hair blowing in the wind against the backdrop of an endless desert, his slender figure-revealing clothing, and the distinctive aura created by his unwavering gaze, inevitably deviates from the archetype. But as the movie progresses, he exudes the necessary acting prowess to lead the literal “holy war” of the cosmos. After his awakening as a seer and acceptance of his destiny, Paul (or Kwisatz Haderach) needs a force that makes him undefiable, and Timothée Chalamet's performance brings clarity into his authority. If his performance up until this point has been a little more introspective, this is the moment when his charisma explodes outwardly. Timothée Chalamet is unflinching as he leads the charge, commanding a group of people to worship him and leading a war without hesitation. If the way he looks and the image he's built over the years convince us to accept him among the Fremen and his feelings for Chani at the beginning of the movie, it's the contrast with his performance in the second half that makes it all the more shocking and overwhelming. As Paul Atreides, Timothée Chalamet in Dune 2 twists the archetype of the character, while still managing to bring the necessary energy to the typical parts. It's another expansion of the world that Timothée Chalamet can convince with his acting.
“Could he take the route of another actor who debuted as a baby-faced heartthrob — say, lingering A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio?” asks VULTURE and other outlets, comparing Timothée Chalamet’s filmography to the weight of that of Leonardo DiCaprio’s. Watching Chalamet now is almost the equivalent of seeing a young Tom Cruise in the 1980s in movies like “Risky Business” and “Top Gun” (BUSINESS INSIDER), a genial talent who has attracted comparisons to predecessors — in Chalamet’s case, Leonardo DiCaprio (The Washington Post). This probably means he’s an actor with a pretty face who has been recognized for his sharp resonance with the public and his talent as a performer. However, unlike many young stars who have become more and more conventionally masculine as their careers and roles evolved, Timothée Chalamet has maintained his boyish image while expanding his acting spectrum. So his moment may still not have begun yet. With his youthful aura still intact, he’s about to start charting a trajectory that Hollywood has never seen before.