Poor old Lisan al-Gaib – oh whoops, I meant Timothée Chalamet. Though you’ll forgive my confusion because, much like his Dune alter ego, it seems Chalamet is finding out just how lonely it can be at the top.
Until very recently, he was the internet boyfriend who could do no wrong. Not even three months ago, in this very column, I praised his unconventional approach to the Marty Supreme promo tour – his charisma, his innate understanding of what fans want from him. How fickle the internet can be – how quick to turn on a dime!
Because in the space of only a week or so, Chalamet has not only lost out on a Best Actor Oscar for the third time, but also faced an intense backlash for an off-the-cuff remark that ‘no one cares’ about ballet and opera. Even Club Chalamet – the worryingly parasocial social media fan account run by indefatigable 59-year-old superfan Simone Cromer – appears to be moving on, with Cromer turning her attention to Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie and announcing she was taking a break from Chalamet-related efforts as they had not brought her ‘personal fulfilment’. Ouch.
In fact, Chalamet might just be one of the first male celebrities to get properly ‘woman’d’ – the phenomenon whereby public opinion on a popular female celebrity suddenly curdles overnight, often for the most spurious of reasons.(Think Anne Hathaway or, more recently, Chappell Roan.)
For many, Chalamet’s stock started to fall when he began dating Kylie Jenner, an association viewed as déclassé and not befitting the artsy, sensitive persona fans knew him for. Since then, we’ve watched him shed his Byron-esque curls to experiment with dubious facial hair and a more braggadocious persona, going from français to frat bro in the process. Industry chatter suggests that the Marty Supremepromo tour – while very effective at getting bums in cinema seats – may have cost him the Oscar, his antics regarded as too brash and unserious by Academy voters. A seemingly innocuous quip by Emma Thompson referencing Samson and Delilah when discussing Chalamet’s haircut on The Graham Norton Show last autumn has since taken on a chillingly prescient quality worthy of the Bene Gesserit themselves.
Yet if I may offer a defence: I actually find Chalamet’s honesty about his ‘pursuit of greatness’ refreshing in an era of faux humble ‘oh it was nothing really’ celebs. His ballet and opera comments also seemed a clumsily worded reflection on those art forms not enjoying the same cultural prominence as film, rather than a diss (and are a sad reality even diehard fans of ballet and opera often acknowledge).
Unfortunately for Chalamet, people are probably just sick of seeing him everywhere given the press tours for Dune: Part Two, A Complete Unknown and Marty Supremewere virtually back to back. As countless female stars have learned before him, the only course of action once you’ve been woman’d is simply to lay low for a while – and maybe grow your hair out again.
This story first appeared on GRAZIA UK.
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