Timothée Chalamet is looking up to another actor with his same initials: Tom Cruise.
Chalamet revealed during a GQ cover story that he watched Cruise’s long-awaited action sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” eight times while in production on his own franchise follow-up, “Dune: Part Two.” Chalamet bought out a movie theater in Budapest and treated the entire “Dune” cast and crew to a “Top Gun: Maverick” screening.
“‘Top Gun’ was just hugely inspiring to me last summer when we were making ‘Dune,‘” Chalamet said. “Some of the crew were kind of scoffing at going, but I just thought it was one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen.”
Chalamet credited actor Cruise for recommending stunt trainers after the first “Dune” film, including motorcycle and helicopter coaches. Cruise is famous for doing his own stunts on films like “Top Gun” and “Mission: Impossible.”
“After I met Tom Cruise, right after finishing the first ‘Dune,‘ he sent me the most wonderfully inspiring email,” Chalamet said. “He basically said, in Old Hollywood, you would be getting dance training and fight training, and nobody is going to hold you to that standard today. So it’s up to you. The email was really like a war cry.”
And it paid off: “Dune” director Denis Villeneuve added to GQ that in terms of Chalamet’s dedication to stunts, he was more “trained” for “Part Two,” perhaps in part to Cruise’s recommendations.
“Action-wise, I felt that he was much more trained than in ‘Part One,’ and ready for the fighting sequences,” Villeneuve said of Chalamet. “I was impressed by his level of discipline for ‘Part Two.’ You know, when you are the lead on a movie, there’s a presence, the way you approach your work and your discipline will necessarily have a ripple effect on the rest of the crew. He was the first one on set, always ready. And I was super pleased and impressed with how Timothée really embraced that discipline and became, for me, a real leading actor on this film.”
Villeneuve continued, “In ‘Part One,’ the camera was capturing the performance of a teenager — I’m talking about the character, someone who was learning about the world and experiencing a new reality. But ‘Part Two’ is really about someone who goes from the boy to the man, and becomes a leader, and even, I will say, a dark charismatic, messianic figure. It was the first time that I witnessed someone growing in front of my camera.”
For all the details on “Dune: Part Two,” click here.
