Timothée Chalamet’s career is going nowhere but up. He’s among the 2025 Oscar nominees for his transformative performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Looking back at his career beginnings, the French-American star got honest about his dad’s relatable take on when his son first wanted to become an actor.
You may not have known this, but the Dune star was born to famous parents. His mother, Nicole Flender, used to dance on Broadway before working for the Actor’s Equity Association and his father, Marc, is a New York correspondent for Le Parisien and editor for UNICEF. We also can’t forget that Timothée Chalamet’s sister, Pauline, is an actress best known for the HBO Max series The Sex Lives of College Girls. In Chalamet’s interview with 60 Minutes, the Golden Globe nominee shared his dad’s relatable and honest take on why he was afraid of his son wanting to be an actor:
My dad, I think he very, very, very correctly, rightfully, was wary [when I was] growing up. It’s no place for a child, it really isn’t. Cameras, people going, ‘Hey, do the thing where we recognize you as cute in your own head.’ I think my dad was more just like, ‘Be normal.’
I can understand where Timothée Chalamet’s father was coming from, as a lot of child actors have a rough time in the industry. In the documentary, Quiet on Set, actor/musician Drake Bell spoke about the abuse he suffered by then-Nickelodeon coach and actor Brian Peck. Child stars have also had mental health struggles or getting their earnings mishandled or stolen by management. It’s also hard to ignore the dark route the entertainment industry takes these child stars down, with exposure to drugs taking the lives of famous names like Brad Renfro, River Phoenix, Anissa Jones and more. Naturally, a parent will be afraid of their child having to face the dark side of show business.
It was revealed in Timothée Chalamet’s 60 Minutes interview that he was exposed to the industry at a young age living in a rent-subsidized apartment in Manhattan Plaza filled with actors. While you’d think being surrounded by performers would encourage anyone to follow suit, Chalamet admitted it actually had the opposite effect:
This building, truthfully, made me scared of acting, because it’s a tough lifestyle, and a lot of people aren’t doing fantastically. … No, [this building] actually terrified me of becoming an actor.
What the Little Women actor says makes sense, as a lot of aspiring actors will go to places like California or New York to make it big in the industry. Unfortunately, not all of them will luck out and achieve the dream goals they sought after. I can picture Timothée Chalamet getting to hear many stories of performers leaving their apartment building with optimism, only to come back feeling down for not nailing their audition. It certainly is a tough industry where you need to learn to develop thick skin to handle possible rejection on a daily basis.
Fortunately, Chalamet’s turning point in his career was getting accepted into La Guardia High School, which was a competitive public school for the performing arts. It was there he starred in musicals like Cabaret and Sweet Charity. A fascinating fact about the Lady Bird actor was after he graduated high school, he planned to study cultural anthropology at Columbia University, only to transfer to New York University’s Gallatin School of Individual Study a year later to continue his studies in acting. Chalamet clearly had an unmistakable focus on his passion for acting and couldn’t walk away from growing his craft.
Timothée Chalamet’s father may have been afraid of his son going into acting feeling it wasn’t the right place for a child. However, luck was certainly on the BAFTA nominee’s side as he nabbed his first child roles making TV guest appearances, then made his way into film in minor roles in Men, Women & Children, and Interstellar.
Then, Timothée Chalamet became a big name globally starring in Call Me By Your Name, where he received his first Oscar nomination. This was followed by starring roles in projects like Beautiful Boy, the Dune series and Wonka. With Chalamet continuing to be recognized by The Academy, it looks like the 29-year-old is receiving the triumphs that any striving actor would dream of, which should certainly ease the worries of his father.
You can watch Timothée Chalamet in his Oscar-nominated Bob Dylan role in A Complete Unknown, which is still playing in theaters alongside the 2025 movie releases.