Timothée Chalamet, making history as the first solo man to cover British Vogue, has a lot to say.
In the Giles Hattersly-penned cover story, the man described as “boyfriend to an entire generation,” opens up about his new film, Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal love story Bones and All, his meteoric rise to fame and what life is like as an ever-evolving artist. But, Hattersly writes, Chalamet often prefers to ask the questions rather than offer a definite opinion on anything as a “classic deflector.”
The profile doesn’t waste any time getting to a headline-worthy item by arguing that Chalamet seems to have picked up the baton from onetime teen heartthrob, Leonardo DiCaprio, who, when they met in 2018, offered up his career rule: “No hard drugs and no superhero movies.”
There’s no flying in Chalamet’s latest film in which he plays Lee, a lovestruck cannibal on a road trip with a fellow eater, played by Taylor Russell. He reveals he leaned on aspects of himself for the character. “With Lee, the illusion of control is based on feeling for no one and not even interacting with anyone. And I guess that’s where I’m at.”
The Oscar nominated Chalamet, currently at work filming the second installment of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, also shares an excitable response to his other upcoming project as the title character in Wonka from director Paul King. “This movie is so sincere, it’s so joyous.” He admits that he has seven musical numbers, adding that pushing himself creatively as an artist is thrilling.
“I hate to say it, but the dream as an artist is to throw whatever the fuck you want at the wall, you know? And I guess what I’m realizing is that one’s personal life, one’s adult life, can be quite boring and the artist’s life can still be extraordinary.”
The October 2022 issue of British Vogue, led by editor in chief Edward Enninful, is on newsstands on Sept. 20.
Photographed by Steven Meisel/Courtesy of British Vogue