I wouldn't want to be Timothée Chalamet's publicist. If he's been fired, he must be relieved after an exhausting awards season. I hope we have a Karla Sofía Gascón every year.
Chalamet had delivered the best performance of the year in Marty SupremeA ping-pong player, ambitious, unscrupulous, and willing to do anything to become a star. The actor is electrifying and appears in practically every scene of the film. Objectively, under different circumstances, he would have swept all the awards ceremonies. It was his year; he had no serious competition and was coming off another memorable performance as Bob Dylan; the best thing about a boring film, with nothing interesting to say and, in short, quite bad.
But the new big kid is unpopular in Hollywood and around the world. They haven't forgiven him for publicly stating that he wants to be one of the greats like Marlon Brando and Daniel Day-Lewis. That he wouldn't play humble and that he was aiming for greatness as an actor. He has emphasized the excellence of his role throughout the promotional tour for Marty SupremeHe's right, but neither Hollywood nor the world works that way. He had already lost an Oscar (the voting was closed) when he said that ballet and opera didn't matter to anyone. Thousands of outraged people crucified him, thousands of whom probably haven't been to a ballet or opera in their lives. He was honest from the perspective of a loudmouthed 30-year-old who doesn't consider it a popular art form.
The public and critics have bowed down to other greats (many), besides Brando and Day-Lewis, who have behaved just like Chalamet, arrogantly and have been just as much of a jerk as him. But they didn't publicly want an Oscar like Timothée, nor did they openly say they deserved it. Michael B. Jordan has been the biggest beneficiary of the controversy: he can now release films for life with the added title of Academy Award Winner under his name for playing twins in Sinners who often seemed like the same thing in different clothes.
No one can deny Chalamet, however much of a show-off he may be, the title of best actor of his generation. The new DiCaprio, just as he was the new De Niro, and so on. Let him be patient; Hollywood will redeem him with a mediocre film and a histrionic performance. Just ask poor Al Pacino, for example. Another undeniably intense actor.
