Timothée Chalamet’s high school theater work helped him find his way to his latest role as Willy Wonka.
Wonka director Paul King (Paddington) recently told Rolling Stone that Chalamet, 27, was his first and only choice to portray the iconic character, who originated in author Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
King said he did not ask Chalamet to audition since examples of his singing and dancing abilities are readily available online.
“It was a straight offer because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it,” King said. “But because he’s Timothée Chalamet and his life is so absurd, his high school musical performances are on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of views.”
“So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well,” he added. “And I knew that was in his arsenal, but I didn’t know how good he was. When I spoke to him he was quite keen. He’d done tap dancing in high school and he was like, ‘I’d quite like to show people I can do that.’ ”
Indeed, a number of high school theater productions Chalamet participated in during his time at New York City’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts are available on YouTube.
Some of these videos, such as a performance from the musical Sweet Charity, have amassed hundreds of thousands of views over the years — while another video of the then-teenager rapping and dancing onstage has over 4 million views.
Chalamet is the latest actor to portray Willy Wonka onscreen; Gene Wilder played the role in the classic 1971 live-action adaptation of Dahl’s book, and Johnny Depp took the part for Tim Burton’s 2005 remake.
Back in September, the Little Women actor told Vogue UK that he has seven musical numbers in the upcoming movie.
“Reading the book, there’s so much that Dahl writes in verse. So it felt like a no-brainer this should have songs in it,” King told Rolling Stone of his decision to make Wonka a musical.
The Wonka trailer was first unveiled at CinemaCon 2023 in April, along with the news that Hugh Grant will play an Oompa Loompa in the movie.
When the trailer debuted Tuesday, it teased a brief glimpse of Chalamet and Grant in conversation in one scene, with the Four Weddings and a Funeral actor shrunk to Oompa Loompa size and stuck in a jar.
“He’s the funniest person I know,” King said of bringing Grant, 62, into the fold for his latest project. “It was a very happy moment when you go, ‘Oh, I think your voice can sit with this judgmental, sarcastic, mean-spirited character.’ ”
“The gleeful, mischievous delight the Oompa Loompas take in the demise of those kids is so funny. When you read the poems they are so cruel and kind of acerbic,” he added. “Trying to write down character traits and find their voice outside the songs, I realized, ‘That’s what Hugh sounds like. Hugh is an Oompa Loompa.’ ”
Wonka is in theaters Dec. 15.
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