Timothée Chalamet on Susan Boyle, EsDeeKid and Marty Supreme | BBC News

I know it's hard to believe, but I'm telling you this game it fills stadiums overseas and it's only a matter of time before I'm staring at you from the cover of a Wheaties box. Timothee Chalamet has already been nominated at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards for his performance in Marty's Supreme, but he won't be winning any prizes from me for his choice of interview outfit. Well they told me at the last second you were Scottish, you know it's too late. I tried to take a sharpie and cross it out but I apologise. I hope this is not your allegiance for the World Cup. No it's not, my allegiance somehow is to two countries, not even one, neither of them which is England, one of which is France, one of which is the United States. Now look at this, an orange ball, which no one's ever thought of. See, you're already following it way better, look at his eyes, you're looking more engaged now. Buddy, custom ball like that, it's gonna cost a lot of money. Of course it's custom, it's an original ball for an original guy, it's a Marty Supreme ball, not the Marty normal ball. It's not featured much in movie history, Forrest Gump, Balls of Fury, the comedy, is this a sports film? I think it starts as a sports film, it sort of takes on the structure of a heist film at some point. Frank, Frankie, coming out of scoot right now. Oh. And then it really lands, hopefully, in a very emotional human place, but this is definitely the most untraditional movie I think I've been a part of and one of the ones I'm most proud of. Backhand, backhand, forehand. How good are you at table tennis now? I'm good at making it look good. I got approached with this project in 2018, so that basically gave me, you know, six, seven years to prepare on and off. In all my downtime, I would train as much as possible. I think the responsibility in this movie, like in the Bob Dylan movie, if you were a Dylan fan or a guitar player, that that looks real to you on screen. Similarly here, if you're a ping pong aficionado, that that looks believable to you, you know? Because you'd take the tables onto other film sets. Yeah, absolutely. Tell us some of the films. Starting in the production of the first Dune, I think I had a table with me. I've got a challenge for you. The Olympics are in LA in 2028. How about you in the U.S. table tennis team? Yeah, that's like a point, um, point zero, million, zero, one percent chance. But never say never. Stranger things have happened. How do you live? Well, I live with the confidence that if I believe in myself, the money will follow. And what do you plan to do if this whole dream of yours doesn't work out? That doesn't even enter my consciousness. How much do you like Marty? I love Marty. I, you know, I think it's an old Meryl Streep quote where you, she said you can't be smarter than the character you're playing. And I'm playing someone in this movie who's ethically compromised in some ways. You know, when you're in your early 20s, you're an idiot. And this movie, in large part, is about being an idiot in your early 20s. And if on top of that, you have a passion that you're singular about, you risk looking foolish in addition to being an idiot. He is a confident guy. Yeah. You strike me as a confident guy. Where does your confidence come from? Well, it ebbs and flows. You know, uh, I feel like that's kind of what keeps me on my toes. It's my New York mentality. And so far as if I'm on a movie or, you know, in a social situation, if things are going well, you feel great. And if not, the world's falling apart. I think increasingly in my life, like, you know, as I approach 30 here in a couple of weeks, you know, you want to be more on your feet. You know, uh, you want to grow into yourself. And, but that is a constant learning process. And it's like a, and it's a huge learning curve, you know, and I try not to be too hard on myself or those around me. It's the kind of time that you can reflect when you're turning 30, you know, the new decade. Yeah, exactly. How did you look back in your 20s? It's been great. You know, it's been awesome. I feel like I'm living in a dream. I'm on top of a fancy hotel in London and talking about a film I'm deeply passionate about. And I got to offend somebody from Scotland the second they walked in with an England shirt. This is a dream. Fruitionizing the release of this movie, like really making sure it comes out in a great way. Timothy Chalamet has been promoting the film in unusual ways. There was a 17-minute fake leaked Zoom meeting with him and a pretend marketing team. I had my visual artist actually work on this for six months. Two, this is what I'm thinking, okay? Orange blimp, right? Last weekend, he opened up a pop-up store in London and he's been presenting Marty Supreme jackets to people he believes to be truly great, including NFL legend Tom Brady and Barcelona's La Mina Mal. If you're in the UK, what Brits would be worthy? Oh man, what a great question, man. You know, Lewis Hamilton, Victoria and David. Who else, man? Fake Mink. Suzanne Boyle. Why? She dreamt big. She dreamt bigger than all of us. Who wasn't moved by that? I remember that like it was yesterday. That was like the advent of YouTube, you know? Well, Tim, we've not done too badly for you turning up in the most provocative outfit anyone has worn to an interview with me for a long, long time. Great, great. That was so not the intention, but you know, apologies first and foremost. And hopefully you'll accept that apology and go see Marty Supreme Boxing Day. Do me one thing. Watch Scotland 4 Denmark 2 on YouTube. It's the game that got us the World Cup. I will. And it made a nation cry. Who scored the goals? Scott McTominay overhead kick. McTominay's fantastic. Yeah, we'll watch that. Hey, good luck to you guys. It's gonna be amazing. I can't wait. Lovely to talk. Colin Patterson, BBC News.