Oscar Seasoning: Timmy is Thirsty

Timothee Chalamet has been nominated for two Oscars. He’s widely considered to be one of the greatest talents of his generation. In Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie’s sorta-biopic of a ping pong player in the midst of political and egotistical turmoil, has received some of the most enthusiastic reviews of 2025. He’ll probably be nominated for his third Oscar very soon. He’s yet to turn 30. And he really really wants it.

(Image via A24.)

There’s a lot of Oscar thirst in the air this season. Dwayne Johnson’s serious actor dreams are quickly fading away as The Smashing Machine drops out of the race, but he’s clinging to the promo cycle with round-table and interview appearances. Kate Hudson is shoehorning her way into the conversation with Song Sung Blue. Sydney Sweeney is not owned, thank you very much, just ignore the corncob in the boxing ring. Timmy, meanwhile, is front and centre with his latest movie, and he’s taking the opportunity to let the world know that he is extremely serious about his ambitions. He wants that Oscar, and he’s not shy about it.

I have a soft spot for a certain kind of Oscar thirst. I like it when the considered artist is candid about their ambition and doesn’t try to cloak it in the expected buzz-phrases of faux-modesty. I’ve no time for those who claim they’re not in it for awards but schmooze at every event and go out of their way to become the frontrunner. Bradley Cooper often gets dinged for this. So, you certainly can’t claim that Chalamet is anything less than honest in his hunger to be the biggest and the best. He might be the most candid actor of his generation in that regard. Usually, when actors win an award, they talk down their own achievements to praise their contemporaries. When Chalamet won the SAG Award, he let his colleagues know that he was working explicitly to become one of the greats. And they loved him for it. They’re rooting for him and helping to elevate his status.

So, when does ambition become pure arrogance? I’ve seen a lot of people say that recent Chalamet interviews have shown him swing right into the latter category. In one sit-down, he described how he felt he’d become a far greater actor over the years and that his work in Marty Supreme was excellent. I haven’t seen the movie yet since it won’t be released in the UK until the new year, so I can’t comment on that front. Many critics definitely agree with him, though. It’s a performance that is frequently listed as one of the year’s best. But we know that’s never enough. It is a popularity contest, after all. And Timmy is popular.

It is extremely difficult to pull off the balancing act of being a charming asshole. I don’t think Chalamet is a jerk, but he doesn’t have the juice to be a Bill Murray-esque figure of both ego and charisma (and Murray hasn’t had it in a while either.) I must admit that I cringed watching that interview. Honestly, he just seemed kind of annoying, and in a way he’s largely avoided in the past. He doesn’t have to cloak his self-satisfaction in fake humility or anything like that. It may be that we just don’t like this kind of grandeur from anyone, much less a guy who wasn’t old enough to remember the premiere of The Simpsons. We tend to accept such rhetoric more from older people who have put in the years, or figures who have embraced a certain strain of self-caricature or performativity.

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One thing I do like about Chalamet is how well-balanced he seems to be. He is extremely serious about his work but is also a goofball who doesn’t endlessly cloak himself in mighty self-regard. He’s an auteur’s favourite but also a rap nerd who loves basketball and dates hot Instagram models. That seeming disconnect throws many of his fans, especially those who think Kylie Jenner is somehow to intellectually inferior for Timmy, but I think it speaks to how well-adjusted he is, and how good he is at navigating fame. As I wrote before, Timothee Chalamet likes being famous. I think it’s one of the reasons he’s gone so far at such a young age: the industry rewards those who play the game with such proficiency. In that regard, he truly is Leo’s heir.

There is also, of course, the reality of Chalamet being a straight white dude with the right people in his corner. No woman would ever be embraced as an honest idol for saying out loud that they’re a brilliant actor and want to be one of the best. The internet spent years decrying Anne Hathaway for being too practiced in her earnestness during her Oscar season. Jennifer Lawrence was chewed out for being “fake” in her open-hearted jokey personality. For all of the tweets and memes mocking Chalamet for his interviews and double-orange red carpet fashion with Kylie, I’ve yet to see a cycle of think-pieces wondering why the internet hates him. I’m not seeing any faux-concerned awards prognosticators claiming he’s now too arrogant to win an Oscar, as if that’s ever stopped any true frontrunner (I have seen one piece claim he’s reinventing the awards campaign as we know it, which is objectively untrue.) Not that I want to see any of that, because none of us need to. Chalamet’s power is not just talent and striving: it’s rooted in a long history of who Hollywood favourites and why.

How much do awards have to do with quantifying that? Art isn’t sports, and the gamifying of it can be exhausting and beside the point. When I was on CBC Radio talking about Club Chalamet (shameless plug), I discussed how I disliked the numbers game that a lot of pop culture fandom had become. There’s an endless obsession with box office grosses, review score averages, and, yes, the number of awards won. It’s fun to be behind the winning horse and in an artform that is not designed to be easily judged or digested, distilling things to such a base foundation as “my fave has an Oscar and yours doesn’t” scratches at a very primal itch. I wonder if that’s how Chalamet views his career. Will the Oscar prove he’s a great? The industry clearly shares some of that sensibility, although it’s not silly enough to be totally beholden to it. David Cronenberg doesn’t have an Oscar. Neither does John Goodman or Isabelle Huppert or Ann Dowd. Would you dare believe they’re all lesser than Emilia Perez because of that? Not even close.

That doesn’t diminish his talent. Chalamet is great at what he does. I get people who aren’t into his work (and I genuinely wasn’t into his Bob Dylan impersonation), but the bulk of his filmography speaks for itself. If any young male actor is to break the Academy’s habit of waiting until the candidate enters middle age before receiving their Oscar, it’ll be him. Will it happen this year? Well, Leonardo DiCaprio is headlining the most acclaimed movie of the year, Ethan Hawke is gaining more attention for a critical darling in Blue Moon, Wagner Moura is undeniable in The Secret Agent, and Sinners’ Michael B. Jordan is the double-duty blockbuster star of the season with the public’s enthusiasm behind him. It’s going to be a busy category, although I do expect Chalamet to be nominated. Will AMPAS want to reward Leo for the second time before they give it to someone else for the first? Don’t ask me: I’m Team Wagner.