Timothée Chalamet almost didn’t bite into the Willy Wonka prequel film, “Wonka.”
The Oscar-nominated actor shows off his triple-threat talent in the musical movie, helmed by “Paddington” director Paul King, as he plays a young version of Roald Dahl’s beloved chocolatier. However, Chalamet admitted to Games Radar that he was skeptical of taking on the role.
“Like many people, when there are remakes, I feel very protective over the original character and versions you love,” Chalamet said. “Your eyebrows go up with skepticism about [whether] this is a legitimate, worthwhile story or a cynical money grab.”
He continued, “But I was reading the first three pages of the script, and the song ‘Hat Full of Dreams’ was in there, and there was no music to accompany it, but the lyrics were so clever. [It’s] about this young Willy, who was definitively not the crazy, cynical, kind of jaded, brain-fried version that we see in the two prior films but was very hopeful, young, ambitious, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer, maybe a little naive. I think that’s very clever.”
The “Call Me By Your Name” actor added, “I love musical theatre and I love song and dance. And I love old Fred Astaire movies and the original ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ with Gene Wilder. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to do it, not like this. But Paul King is one of these directors that you don’t say no to.”
Chalamet additionally told People magazine that “Wonka” stands out from his filmography thus far.
“This was so fun to work on. This was unlike anything I’ve ever worked on, I think,” Chalamet said. “I come from a musical theater family, and this is more in line of the kind of movie I would’ve thought I’d be doing 10 years ago, if I was lucky enough to work at all.”
According to Chalamet, even his mother Nicole Flender approved of the project.
“This is maybe her favorite thing I’ve ever been in,” he said. “I think she saw ‘Bones and All’ and said, ‘You gotta be happier in your movies!’”
IndieWire’s David Ehrlich applauded the “whimsical” film for being a natural extension of director King’s “Paddington” films with the “purity of its imagination remaining unquestionable.”
