Why Timothee Chalamet's Acting Is Different (Video Essay)

This is part 3 of my 3 part review of Bones and All, and in this video I'm going to break down the subtle acting of Timothee Chalamet and what sets him apart from other actors around his age. I'm going to compare his performances in Call Me By Your Name and Bones and All, as they are both Luca Guadagnino directed movies, and it allows us to see how he's grown as an actor and how through very subtle techniques and choices he's able to shape a performance on camera better than most other actors out there. So firstly we have to take it back to Call Me By Your Name, which was the role that really put him on the map in terms of the Hollywood filmmaking industry. In Call Me By Your Name he really showed how nuanced he could be as an actor, giving his character Elio a lot of depth through his performance. There are subtle moments where he really draws you into his character and lets the audience know what he's thinking without actually spelling it out. It's certain pauses or looks that he gives, or even slight changes to his physicality that gives away his inner personal thoughts. This is a very tough thing to achieve as an actor, and he did so masterfully, especially with the fact that the book of Call Me By Your Name is written from Elio's perspective. It was vital to the film that we could understand Elio's thoughts, but to do that without narration or diary entries is incredibly difficult, and not many actors could pull that off. Another great thing about Chalamet's performance in Call Me By Your Name is the way he allows certain scenes to breathe. A lot of actors are constantly working through a scene to get to the end, and they have an objective that they are trying to reach, or a goal in how they want the scene to play out. However, what's unique about Timothee Chalamet, and any great actor, is the way that he acts without an objective. He isn't trying to control a scene, he just lets it play out and is constantly being affected and stimulated by what happens throughout the scene and what plays out around him. He showcased this in Call Me By Your with the way he would just breathe in before a line, or not say a line to feed the scene, but allow himself to be affected before saying the line, and letting it all fall out naturally and personally. I think his co-stars like Armie Hammer and Michael Stuhlbarg were able to feed off his acting and not act with an objective either, but it all started with Timothee Chalamet bringing that energy into the scene. This leads me into Bones and All, in which we can see the areas Timothee Chalamet has grown as an actor, and how he also kept and expanded on certain aspects of his performance in Call Me By Your Name for this film. In my opinion, Bones and All is his best performance to date, and here's why. As I mentioned before, in Call Me By Your Name, he allowed scenes to sit, and he didn't act with any objective. However, in this film, he took that one step further and applied that technique with more perspective. By that, I mean, he wasn't completely lost in the scene that he forgot he was making a movie, but rather understood the film in a way that allowed him to do things that he knew would make the film better, and shape his performance in a beautiful way. It's incredibly hard to act as if you're in a movie without losing the naturalistic elements that shape a good performance, and that's why he went to a whole new level of acting in this film. For example, whenever he is eating away at someone, he made the choice to be more vulnerable and shy, and when he was just sitting talking to Marin, he was full of confidence and bravado. This was an objective choice and gave him a goal, but he was able to work toward that goal in a scene, without losing his ability to sit in a scene and remain natural and still, and allow impulses to work. I implore anyone watching this video to try and act with a goal of how you want the scene to go, without being stiff and remaining free. It's a hard task, and something I don't even think Chalamet himself could have done 5 years ago. However, now he has shown himself to definitely be one of the greatest actors of our time, through his performance in Bones and All, joining the greats like Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington, as only actors of their caliber can do what Timothy did in Bones and All. That wraps up my 3 video review of Bones and All, and as always, I hope you liked this video, and I'll see you on my next one.