The “Wonka” and “Dune: Part Two” star finds himself caught between his celebrity and true self
Timothée Chalamet is now the face of Bleu De Chanel and stars in Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited short film featuring the iconic fragrance.
The one-and-a-half-minute spectacle has been teased since early images of its production were leaked the previous year. Shot in New York, the Scorsese project explores how celebrities grapple the responsibilities and demands that come with fame.
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“In this short film, I’m playing sort of a caricature of what my life could be seen as in a hyper-realist setting and sort of the publicity requirements that come with acting, says Chalamet.”
“One of the highest honors, if not the highest honor of my career, is to get to work with Martin Scorsese in New York. I’m a New York boy, I’m a New York actor. I’m checking something huge off [my] personal bucket list”
The Chanel project features Chalamet in a monochrome world where he’s followed by the paparazzi and is obligated to show up in late night shows he doesn’t even want to be part of. His only source of color are blue-tinted visions of a movie he acted in. And while initially signifying an artist who could not separate himself from his craft, it is only when he embraces his artistry do his surroundings burst with color and life.
“You reach into yourself, you find yourself. And only after that are you free to be who you are,” says Chalamet in the short film.
The brief flick closely follows themes laid out by previous Bleu De Chanel short films starring the late Gaspard Ulliel—of breaking out of expectations set by others. Scorsese says in the behind-the-scenes video shot by his daughter Francesca, “We take the original idea that we had of the presentation of Chanel Bleu back then and bring it, in a sense, up to date to now.”
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“The conflict between celebrity and staying true to being an artist. The TV studios with the flashes of brilliant light. You have to behave comfortably and casually, but there are all these lights on you. I don’t know how the actors do it.”
He adds, “The world has changed. There’s another aspect to celebrity in a way, which is more extreme as 10 or 15 years ago.”