Timothée Chalamet made his professional acting debut in an episode of Law & Order in 2009, but it wasn’t until eight years later that his talent gained widespread recognition. He received critical acclaim for starring alongside Armie Hammer in the 2017 romantic drama Call Me by Your Name, as well as his supporting role in the dramedy Lady Bird.
Here are five things to know about the 22-year-old breakout star, who is nominated for the Academy Award for best actor for his role in Call Me by Your Name.
1. He Dated Madonna’s Daughter Lourdes Leon
Chalamet and Leon, then teenagers, briefly dated in 2013 while they were attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. He told Andy Cohen during a SiriusXM interview in November 2017 that Leon hadn’t seen Call Me by Your Name yet, though. “The movie itself she’s very excited about and the reception it’s been getting is only a great thing,” Chalamet said at the time.
2. Showbiz Runs in His Blood
The NYC native’s uncle Rodman Flender is a filmmaker who worked on MTV’s Scream series. His aunt Amy Lippman is a TV producer who cocreated the Fox teen drama Party of Five. And his late grandfather Harold Flender was also a screenwriter, best known for Paris Blues (1961) and I Spy (1955).
3. He Speaks French and Italian
Chalamet speaks French fluently and spent many of his childhood summers in France. He traveled to Italy a month and a half before filming Call Me by Your Name so that he could learn the language, as well as take piano and guitar lessons to get into character. “Learning the Italian was tough,” he told Newsweek in November 2017. “I tried to really come at from a purist perspective, really learn the grammar, syntax and conjugations. And I’m proud of the job I do with the Italian in the movie.”
4. He Wanted to be a Soccer Player
Before becoming an international superstar, the former Columbia University student (who dropped out of college after a year of studies) wanted to play soccer professionally. “I am French, after all,” he told Verge magazine in August 2017. “I was a coach at a soccer camp in France. I coached 6 to 10-year-olds when I was around 13. I was good at it, but the pay was not acting money.”
5. He Made Out With Hammer on Their First Day on Set
Chalamet told Ellen DeGeneres in November 2017 that his onscreen chemistry with heartthrob Hammer, 31, began the first day they met. “We’re making out and making out and no one’s saying stop,” he said of their first rehearsal. “All of a sudden, we both kind of stop and look, and [director Luca Guadagnino] had just walked away and left us right there, rolling around in the grass.” Hammer chimed in, “It was a bit of an icebreaker.”
