If you have watched any popular movie from the past five years, odds are you know who Timothée Chalamet is. Once again, the movie star is up for the best actor Oscar, and I am one of many people on the edge of their seats, wondering if he will finally take home the biggest award of the night.
Chalamet made his film debut in the movie Men, Women & Children, but his breakout role was in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. While some may know him as the son of the astronaut, much of his prominence also comes from his popular 2017 movies in his roles of Elio in Call Me by Your Name and Kyle in Ladybird. For me, this is where I first recognized him as an actor to watch, and so did the Academy.
Chalamet received a Best Actor nomination in 2018 for Call Me by Your Name, a heart-wrenching movie set in Italy. At the center of that feeling was his captivating performance as the young Elio. I come back to watch that movie again and again, partially for the visuals of 1980’s southern Italy, but mainly for his outstanding acting. The steep competition in that category that year, including Daniel Kaluuya, Denzel Washington, and Daniel Day-Lewis, led to Chalamet’s loss. He spent the next few years adding hit after hit to his already stacked resume.
To wrap up his decade of movies, Chalamet added his role of Laurie in the 2019 remake of Little Women, and starring roles in Beautiful Boy and The King. While releasing these films, Chalamet added a herd of fans that grew to love his acting and French charisma, but he has yet to win, let alone be nominated for a second Oscar.
Into the 2020s, Chalamet kept starring in movies that soon became his most famous roles. He tried his hand at a new genre when starring in his role as Paul Atreides in the Dune trilogy. Even through years of filming and extensive combat training for the sci-fi movie, Chalamet was still nomination-less. This lack of attention from the critics brought forward the question: Was the switch from dramatic indie films and period pieces a mistake? Should stick to what he does best — being the love interest?
The absence of nominations seemed to only further his drive for the prestigious award. Some observant fans of his know about his alter ego, Little Timmy Tim, who rapped and danced and has not been seen since his days at LaGuardia High School. That part of him seemed to re-emerge as he shocked everyone in his role as Willy Wonka in Wonka. Oscar recognition seemed like it was on the horizon after various viral clips from the movie made their way across social media, but he still missed the nomination.
All of this changed when he starred as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. His singing abilities took center stage once again in the biopic, and the Academy seemed to have made up for the seven years he went without a nomination, finally giving him his second one in 2025. His drive for the award was clear as videos of him learning to play the guitar and studying Dylan’s dialect circulated in the midst of the award season. It was this time of year that we witnessed Chalamet on what seemed like the craziest press junket ever. He played in college marching bands, did double duty on SNL as host and musical guest, and went on a cryptic Instagram live in a boiler room, which I am still trying to figure out to this day.
But, he had yet another tough group to beat, and in the end, Best Actor controversially went to Adrien Brody. Just a few months after the Oscars, Chalamet announced his role as Marty Mauser in Marty Supreme. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me like he was promoting this movie for years. And in this promotion, he did a complete 180 from the Chalamet we are all used to.
He threw away the indie look for a buzz cut, and leaned into the social media of it all as he became noticeably more active on the platforms. And how can you talk about the marketing of this movie without talking about the Marty Supreme jackets that any celebrity you can think of seems to be wearing? If you wanted to get one of these yourself, you would be short a whopping $800, and that’s on the low end.
Other trademarks of this movie and era were the orange pong pong balls. They were sold in limited quantities at select movie theaters and with the “dream big” tagline. As if this wasn’t enough, Chalamet halted rumors of his secret identity as United Kingdom-based rapper EsDeeKid with a collaboration with him just a week before Marty Supreme’s release on Christmas Day.
I have heard Chalamet shout, “Marty Supreme Christmas Day,” for the past five months (even once on top of the Sphere in Las Vegas), and that just screams dedication. His role in the movie definitely stood out, particularly his through accent and the emotion he showed in some of the film’s heated moments. I found it shocking that this was the same actor in all of the roles previously mentioned, which goes to show his incredible range and depth.
I think a Best Actor win for Chalamet is long overdue. If he does win, it proves that this era of celebrities marketing for their movies matters almost as much as their performance in the role itself. Nonetheless, I will be tuned in on March 15 to see if he finally gets his Oscar, and to see what publicity comes next for the star who clearly does it for the love of the game.