On a regular Monday afternoon last December, Timothée Chalamet went live on Instagram. That’s not exactly unusual for a normal 28-year-old, but for Chalamet, whose posts on social media have somewhat diminished as his star has risen, a livestream was a peculiar event.
It was December 23, two days before the Christmas holiday release of Chalamet’s latest film, the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” The livestream and the film were connected, no doubt. But would Chalamet be jumping on Instagram to chat with his fans about the movie? Would he be performing Dylan songs live and have to battle with a choppy internet connection?
Chalamet’s chances of Oscar glory have never looked better, and that’s all thanks to an ingenious campaign strategy that prioritizes artistic creativity over customary canvassing.
As it turns out, Chalamet had much stranger plans in store. The livestream opened with Chalamet sitting on an office chair in the middle of a sparse warehouse space. In front of him stood a giant LED screen projecting floor-to-ceiling video footage of Dylan while his song “Blind Willie McTell” blared throughout the room. Toward the end of the six-minute song, Chalamet strode into the shadows and reemerged with an acoustic guitar in hand, strumming it for a moment before smashing it to bits as Dylan’s song concluded. Seconds later, the unmistakable sound of the Black Eyed Peas’ perennial party anthem “I Got a Feelin’” filled the room. The massive screen began to flash with benign phrases of praise for Chalamet — “Congratulations Timothée”; “We are so proud of you”; “You did it”; “Impressive to say the least” — while he danced around the room. Chalamet exploded confetti cannons and ripped off his shirt as the song finished, after which the camera followed him out of the building and into the street before he walked out of frame, a star growing smaller in the distance.
Chalamet never disclosed the meaning behind the event. But he did post the entire video to his Instagram page, where it sits among photos from his December 2024 Rolling Stone cover story. That editorial was shot by photographer Aidan Zamiri, who co-conceived and directed Chalamet’s puzzling livestream. For the Rolling Stone profile, Zamiri designed 3D-printed masks with phrases from Dylan’s songs, most notably “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” etched onto them. Chalamet sported the masks and a cardboard cutout of Dylan’s face around New York City, where both Dylan and Chalamet rose to prominence. The masks were Dylan disguises by way of Chalamet’s high-concept sartorial flair, a far more unique and intriguing way of stressing the work it took to become Dylan for “A Complete Unknown” than the more traditional talk show appearances or red carpet reporter schmoozing.
But as much as these antics have emphasized the connections between Chalamet and Dylan, they’ve also highlighted the chasm between the two stars’ public personas, making Chalamet’s performance in “A Complete Unknown” seem all the more transformative. For Chalamet — who was nominated for an Oscar for his role just last week — getting audiences, critics and Academy voters to understand how chameleonic his performance is could be the key to bagging his first big win. While hosting “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend, Chalamet poked fun at the fact that he’s continuously lost at every major awards show since the start of his career. “I just keep losing!” Chalamet said during his monologue. Though this bit got big laughs from the audience, Chalamet’s chances of Oscar glory have never looked better, and that’s all thanks to an ingenious campaign strategy that prioritizes artistic creativity over customary canvassing.
Before the lengthy promotional tour for “A Complete Unknown” had begun, Chalamet was already making headlines when a New York City Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest went massively viral online. Hundreds of people showed up to the unsanctioned event in October 2024, which didn’t just become the talk of the daily news, but created an ongoing celebrity lookalike phenomenon. Chalamet himself showed up at the event just long enough to pose for a few snaps with the top-voted doppelgangers before fleeing the chaos.
Whether the contest was some clever grassroots conspiracy or just divine intervention, Chalamet’s awards campaign is partially indebted to the explosion of celebrity lookalike competitions. The events were silly, sure. But they were an opportunity for everyday people who don’t necessarily keep up with upcoming film releases to read about Chalamet’s next project, and a chance for Chalamet to keep that goodwill going as awards season carried on. Chalamet even brought the contest winner to this month’s Golden Globes. Ultimately, he collected another loss, this time to Adrien Brody for “The Brutalist.”
But in the weeks leading up to the Oscars, anything can change. Academy members still have to get around to watching all of the nominated performances, and dozens of outside factors could affect voters’ perception of any given actor. While Chalamet’s campaign kicked off early, his has been far more consistently entertaining than any of the competitors within his category: Brody, Ralph Fiennes, Colman Domingo and Sebastian Stan.
Each nominated actor has a unique story to spin this year. Brody is back in the prestige lane with “The Brutalist,” a timely film, shot on a relatively shoestring budget, in which he holds his own amid the movie’s massive scale; Sebastian Stan is an underdog for playing Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” a film that has already proven controversial within the industry; Domingo’s mighty turn in “Sing Sing” is nicely complemented by the actor’s fount of charm; and Fiennes’ face dominated last fall’s meme scene, with his performance as a doubtful Catholic cardinal in “Conclave” scoring his third nomination. Despite Chalamet mastering Dylan’s voice and learning the guitar and harmonica to sing and play live during production, Chalamet’s competition is stiff. Yet, for his part, the actor seems undaunted. And this uncomplicated chill isn’t just his personality, it’s part of his campaign strategy.
In the weeks leading up to the theatrical release of “A Complete Unknown,” Chalamet traveled to Minnesota, where Dylan was born and raised, for a three-day press tour. He visited the University of Minnesota, took photos with the college’s marching band, sat for several interviews with local news stations and hosted an early film screening for the Minnesotans in Hibbing, where Dylan spent most of his early life. Chalamet cited the bond he had forged with Minnesota while researching the role as part of his reason for returning to promote the film, but the micro-tour also positioned Chalamet as the kind of salt-of-the-earth guy that Dylan always prided himself on being, a world-famous everyman for the contemporary age. More importantly: Chalamet genuinely looked like he was having fun doing it.
Joy is the essential ingredient that distinguishes Chalamet's Oscar campaign from his competitors. (Except for Domingo, whose conversation with Kieran Culkin on “Actors on Actors” was exhilarating to watch.) As “A Complete Unknown” continues to premiere globally, Chalamet has forgone the stuffy Oscar luncheons and industry events, where actors chat with select reporters and mingle with Academy members and their fellow cinematic elite. Instead, he’s taken a different route to ingratiate himself to the watchful eyes of voters, pulling practical jokes and fascinating hijinks similar to his Instagram livestream at different premieres. Chalamet showed up to the red carpet in London on a Lime bike, and received a small fine in return for not docking the bike correctly after he was finished. In New York, he arrived dressed as Dylan in an iconic look from the Sundance Film Festival in 2003, sporting a blonde wig, stocking cap, leather jacket and scarf. Chalamet’s caterpillar mustache, which he grew for his upcoming film “Marty Supreme,” made the perfect finishing touch to complete the look. Suddenly, Chalamet was no longer the subject of a lookalike contest, he was competing in one.
The tour positioned Chalamet as the kind of salt-of-the-earth guy that Dylan always prided himself on being, a world-famous everyman for the contemporary age. More importantly: Chalamet genuinely looked like he was having fun doing it.
Last weekend, Chalamet capped off this series of shenanigans by showing that, as much as he’s enjoying himself, it’s entirely in earnest. He pulled double-duty as host and musical guest on “SNL,” fashioning modern covers of his favorite Dylan songs, “Tomorrow Is a Long Time” and a medley of “Outlaw Blues” and “Three Angels,” for millions of viewers to hear. Chalamet abandoned the Bob Dylan impression heard in the film but still strummed away at the guitar. The songs might’ve been Dylan covers, but the performances — down to the trendy streetwear he sported onstage — were all Chalamet.
The renditions were charming and disarming, exactly what Academy members are looking for as the industry attempts to diversify the conventional idea of Oscar-winning films and performances. The last few years have seen an uptick in wildcards that, even a decade ago, would’ve seemed out of place at the Oscars; “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” "Barbie” and this year’s most-nominated film, “Emilia Pérez,” to name a few. “A Complete Unknown,” in comparison, is much more in line with the standard Oscar fare we’re used to seeing. But with Chalamet in the lead role of a biopic, it might be the perfect marriage between cinema’s new guard and its old style, an ideal that lets voters move the needle, but not too much.
While that doesn’t mean the Oscars would be headed anywhere particularly progressive if Chalamet wins, it’s difficult to fault him for trying. He’s made it abundantly clear that this role means a great deal to him, and given that the film’s production was stalled for years due to the pandemic, having it released into the world must feel like both an honor and a relief. Chalamet’s confetti-filled livestream suggests as much, perfectly distilling the similarities and differences between the Bard and the actor playing him. Dylan is a musician who has always lived for his art and resisted commercial ideas about how a great performer should act as they rise to the top.
Now, Chalamet has ripped a page from that book. He’s conducted this campaign entirely in his own way, and like Dylan, charmed the world with his individuality in the process. Even after this awards season is over, I can’t imagine anyone would want to see less of him.
Perhaps that was all part of the plan. As the December livestream drew to a close and Chalamet headed toward the door, two more messages flashed across the screen behind him. “Good luck with your future,” one said. And the second: “We’ll be seeing your other films.”
Shares