Timothée Chalamet Interview on Acting & Call Me By Your Name

If I read a script that I feel like, hold on, I've got to get this out of my face, okay. If I read a, if I read a, when I read a script that I feel like is a story or a role that is something I have to do or I want to be a part of, it's a feeling of like claustrophobia or pressure at first and like a feeling that I need to be a part of it and then thinking what the audition process is going to be and how do I get as close to this goal as possible because, as we all know, the answer is more often no than it is a yes. But, you know, I said this to a friend recently, like getting very close to a role or getting a lot of callbacks or being one of the last three but then not getting it, that is not a clear loss. There's a feeling of an overnight switch with some of these films but it's been an even more gratifying feeling working with producers or directors that I've worked with before in the past and more than anything, more than one random successful audition, I think just as consistently putting out as much good work as possible in audition form and casting form is a step in the right direction. I think honesty and being as open a book as possible, I think that was the biggest takeaway from the drama high school I went to for me was keep your heart in your sleeve as an actor. That's your instrument, your ability to make yourself an open wound is what will communicate to the audience and hopefully serve as a therapeutic device for people experiencing something similar to the story. I think that's true of Call Me By Your Name and we just did the interview with Daniel Kaluuya, I think that's true of Get Out as well. As it relates to working more professionally and outside of an academically dramatic environment, I think it's adaptability, that's like the strongest suit you can have as an actor. The experience working with Luca Guadagnino is different than the experience working with Greta Gerwig, it's different from the experience working with Christopher Nolan. And as an actor, particularly if you're not the leader of the project, you try to make yourself as clay-like, as malleable as possible, a blip in the radar, a wallflower, somebody who comes prepared and is ready to go and maybe you have an idea or a trick up your sleeve, something you want to try out, but ultimately your responsibility is to the character, to the story, to that sequence of that day and just trying to do the best job as possible. I think not in the method-y sense, I don't think a relationship has to mirror what's on screen necessarily, and I think if your characters don't know one another, that could be helpful to have a guardedness or an awkwardness or a wall present in the scene. But if you're working with someone intimately, it's good to have that chemistry. Just from a perspective of, you know, wanting to try things out as an actor and feeling comfortable and not feeling like the person opposite you is going to be judging you, which can sound silly or something, but, you know, it's a game of sensitivity and the more sensitive you can make yourself, the more you're able to communicate usually, so comfort's important. And also I think a working relationship and, you know, hopefully the emotional IQ and to know when to step away if you're seeing partners having a tough time at things or know when a word of encouragement can be used, knowing what not to say, but ultimately trying to be the greatest ensemble member as possible, keeping in mind that it's a marathon and not a sprint, and particularly if you are one of the leads on a project, you know, you're a tone setter of sorts, so you can't exclusively be concerned about your performance, and actually often your performance is aided if you can put your collective conscious on somebody else in the scene or on the story or on the script and not, you know, what's happening to that line or what inflection you want to use or what have you. That's what makes me want to be an artist, that's what makes me want to be an actor is that feeling of flow, and like I heard someone say to me once before, like it can be stapling papers or it can be playing the piano or it can be acting, I think when you lose yourself, when you find that certain feeling, that's what's exciting, and more exciting than, you know, being at home eight hours before you do the scene and thinking that's the scene that I feel that climax and lose myself in, but rather, you know, you're in the middle of the scene and in no cheesy way, but just feeling like, oh, I don't know what happened there, that was truthful or spontaneous, and working from that perspective, which is admittedly easier the more you work, because like I remember, like Craig Gillespie who directed I, Tonya, he put me in my first pilot ever, one of my first jobs, I remember the audition I had for him, I think I had three lines and like a three-page scene, so I didn't really have much to say, it was a family scene, I memorized where each family member in the room was, so in this audition my neck was snapping around, you know, after the first couple of takes, like, you know, you just look at the reader and you don't have to keep pretending there are people everywhere, so like I, you know, starting outside, like I would want to know exactly what I was doing in advance, and memorize the other dialogue in the scene and what other people were doing, like the scene with Mr. Perlman at the end of Calling By Your Name is a huge speech, and I usually really like to know what the opposing dialogue is, just for a rhythm of the scene and to know the pacing, but that was one where I, you know, I think I knew maybe what one of the last lines were, but I really wanted to experience it and hear it on the day and have a natural moment with it and not know exactly what was coming. If I could have told myself, it would be, I don't know, I think it's a, it's a lesson that I feel like I learned early on, but it's one that I try to keep as personal as possible, I don't think it's exclusive to entertainment and to filmmaking, I think it's in any collaborative process that it's often not personal, a negative note, someone being brash in the way they're giving you a note, it's a team effort, so there's, because like I said, you want to keep yourself open and sensitive when you're working, at least I try to, but you have to, and that can be, this can be not, I feel like, apparent at a young age, but there has to be like professional you, work you, thick skin, ready to get whatever note really comes at you, and then there's personal you, which you protect and helps you protect the work you and I think you keep those things separate and I guess that was, I had a good year in drama high school where I felt like I did a scene poorly a number of times where I felt like I could get over being bad and yet before that I was really like a very, very sensitive about performance and notes and would take things personally when really, I mean the whole point and the tension as an actor is your body, your voice, your physicality is your instrument and yet it's not personal when somebody gives you a note or you're not clicking, you're not getting a scene a certain way.