While a group of grade school girls practiced their tendus in mismatched leotards down the hall, Timothée Chalamet was unaware to them, walking in circles for an hour. He experimented with his steps, adjusted his stride, paused to reset, and touched his long fingertips together. He repeated this circular walk over and over until it appeared completely natural and effortless. We’re in a dance studio in Hell’s Kitchen, the same neighborhood where Chalamet, now 29, grew up. He’s rehearsing for a role that has challenged many actors before him—the part of a leading man promoting his latest project, a task that can push an actor to the brink or lead to awkward moments on late-night TV.
Chalamet has come up with his own unique concept for this promotion, which could be described as a surreal military march. Imagine him at the center of a group of men dressed in black, each wearing a bright orange Ping-Pong ball on their head, like a classroom globe. This band of pumpkin-headed followers is part of his plan to promote “Marty Supreme” with the energy of an album release. The night before, he introduced them to 45,000 people on Instagram Live to announce the movie’s Christmas Day release. The night after we met, he and his entourage would appear at a Times Square theater for a sneak peek event open to the first arrivals.
To be fair, “Marty Supreme” deserves an unconventional rollout. While it’s technically about Ping-Pong, it’s really a grand story set in the 1950s about ambition, fate, reinvention, gambling, love, and desire, all centered around the game. Chalamet, who stars in and produces the film, has been working on it with director Josh Safdie since 2018. Safdie previously co-directed the intense “Uncut Gems” with his brother Benny.
The movie’s hero, loosely based on former Ping-Pong champion Martin Reisman, is a shameless, arrogant, and selfish young man aiming for fame. He makes a series of terrible decisions that are both horrifying and surprisingly funny, thanks to Chalamet and Safdie’s touch. Marty Mauser is the most self-referential character Chalamet has ever played, which he admits isn’t entirely a compliment. “It’s the most like me before I had any career,” he says.
Safdie met Chalamet in 2017, before his rise to fame, and knew he’d found his Marty. In an email, Safdie wrote that Chalamet’s lightheartedness allowed for improvisation, and in his ambitious dreams and struggle to belong, he saw a man consumed by ambition, much like Marty Mauser.
Watching a rough cut of the film alone in August, I found myself both laughing and cringing as Marty stumbled and failed. He’s a character obsessed with fame, and it’s hard not to be drawn to him.
A few nights before our meeting at the dance studio, Chalamet and Safdie held a surprise screening of “Marty Supreme” at the New York Film Festival to an enthusiastic audience. The event felt like a homecoming for both New Yorkers, celebrating a movie deeply connected to their city. Although reviews were under embargo, the response was ecstatic, sparking immediate awards buzz and speculation about Oscars for Chalamet as both actor and producer.
“It couldn’t have gone better,” Chalamet says. He dislikes when actors downplay their work or act indifferent to audience reactions. He wants people to see his movies—why pretend otherwise?
For a long time, he admired actors who kept to themselves and wore dark suits.He wore dark sunglasses, a complete enigma. But then he began to wonder if it was time to open up a little more. The film industry is changing, and those who want to sell tickets might learn from people who have managed to capture the public’s attention. That means showing up everywhere.
Last year, while promoting the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Chalamet appeared on manosphere podcasts and met with YouTube stars. He even attended a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest. He has no interest in making highbrow films for a shrinking audience. He followed the box office performance of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another—a film he saw and loved. He’s willing to wear a giant Ping-Pong ball on his head if it helps even a few of his 19 million followers decide to see Marty Supreme.
“You don’t want to come on too strong,” he says. “But I also don’t want to look back and say, ‘Oh, little old me. Hey, see the movie if you want. It is what it is.’ No. At worst, you’ve annoyed some people. At best, someone might think, ‘Hey, this guy really believes in this.’”
Now comes the part where I cover Chalamet’s childhood—something I’m sure the restless, naturally precocious Chalamet would rather we skip or spice up. Let’s get through it quickly.
Chalamet grew up in subsidized artist housing in Manhattan with his older sister, Pauline, who is also an actor. His father worked for UNICEF. His mother is now a real estate agent, but she used to teach dance and French—the subject she studied at Yale. Chalamet applied to Yale and Harvard and was rejected by both, but he was a strong enough student at the famous LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts to get into Columbia University.
It wasn’t a good fit. One anthropology course stands out in particular. Chalamet had enrolled with a “brilliant” acquaintance he met through the national arts program YoungArts. Chalamet struggled in class discussions, while his friend raised his hand and made sharp comments that impressed everyone. Now, Chalamet can’t even remember the guy’s last name—just the sting of realizing he was out of his league.
During our interviews, Chalamet shows a level of confidence so solid I could build a small house on it. He doesn’t experience what he calls a “fever pitch of self-terror” that he’s seen in others. He’s watched actors crack under pressure or lose themselves. “That’s never been who I am,” he says. “My superpower is my fearlessness. That’s the feedback I’ve gotten since I was a kid.”
But then, thank goodness, here’s a humanizing hint of insecurity. Chalamet describes his time at Columbia as “rough.” He still believes he never should have been admitted and thinks his acceptance was due to a bureaucratic fluke—the opposite of the divine intervention that seems to have guided the rest of his life and career. He’s convinced Columbia has a “quota of New Yorkers” for each class, though a quick check shows that’s not true. “Well, that’s my theory,” he says, “because for the first time ever, I felt like, Oh, my tools aren’t as sharp as everyone else’s.”
As a kid, Chalamet wanted to be a professional athlete. It was a rude awakening to realize he just “didn’t have the gifts,” he says. He’s only half-joking when he tells me he resents the message he and other sheltered millennials received—that with hard work, we could do anything we set our minds to. With his slender build, Chalamet was never going to be a muscular star athlete. Or an Ivy League graduate. At parties, he likes to tell…People told him that being “the dumbest person at Columbia” made him “one of the brightest people in LA.” Soon after arriving at Columbia, Chalamet decided to leave. He had been auditioning for acting roles since childhood, securing a key part in the series Homeland and a minor role in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar—which remains his favorite of all the films he’s been in. Seeking a more flexible class schedule, he transferred to NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and continued to audition frequently, though he mostly booked nothing at all.
“I remember thinking, Wow, if I ever do make it, and I’m this sensitive to rejection now, how could I handle what the people I admire go through?” he says. He still envies musicians who can create in their bedrooms or rent a studio with friends, share snippets of their work online, and connect directly with fans—bypassing intermediaries. Acting, in contrast, is full of checkpoints and gatekeepers. “You have to be willing to face rejection,” he notes.
Eventually, his persistence paid off—so much so that Chalamet hasn’t returned to television since Homeland. No HBO series, no polished FX shows. When asked if he’d ever go back to TV, he simply and confidently says “no.” He doesn’t leave room for “the right project” or make exceptions for certain directors; he just flashes a movie-star smile, and that ends our on-the-record discussion on the topic.
He does watch TV, however. Chalamet binge-watched Lena Dunham’s recent Netflix show Too Much, which annoyed Pauline, who’s been urging him to finally watch Girls. “She’s been on my case,” Chalamet says. “She’s like, ‘You can’t love Too Much without having seen Girls. Just watch the pilot!'”
Chalamet never actually auditioned for his breakout role in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name, released in 2017 (coincidentally, a few months after Girls ended). Just before the film’s premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, he met designer Haider Ackermann, who was wearing a pink Berluti trench coat. Chalamet—dressed for our meeting in customized Nike SFB boots and Marty Supreme merchandise he’d spent six months developing with designer Doni Nahmias and stylist Taylor McNeill—took one look at “that big raincoat and thought, ‘Oh, boom. That’s what I’m wearing.'” His publicist was horrified, seeing it as a crucial moment in his budding career and fearing he’d ruin his chances with such a bold choice. “It was like, ‘You’re not even going to get off the ground! You’re going to ruin everything before you even start,'” he recalls being told.
Of course, he wore the Berluti jacket anyway, and he and Ackermann remain friends. Acting demands “a degree of obedience” that Chalamet finds restrictive. “I think some people thrive on it, not just actors. I’m talking about publicists, crew members. People love being told what to do.” This willingness to submit is a theme in Dune—Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic where Chalamet plays potential messiah Paul Atreides—and it also explains much of geopolitics. Chalamet doesn’t want to overstate his desire for freedom, but he values it greatly.
“I had to put the pink jacket on,” he says. Since then, fashion has become a key way for him to express himself, and he has challenged what men can wear on the red carpet. He’s worn necklaces instead of ties, stacked bracelets and watches where others might stick to cuff links, and at the premiere of Guadagnino’s 2022 film Bones and All, he sported a backless red halter top. Back at the Berlin Film Festival,For his role in the 2025 film “A Complete Unknown,” Timothée Chalamet wore a pale pink Chrome Hearts hoodie. Since his breakout in “Call Me by Your Name,” which turned him into a star, he has changed publicists. He admits that the sudden fame was unsettling: “The experience of getting famous the way I did and the rocket ship of it was destabilizing.” He feels he has moved past not a severe personal crisis, but the mental health struggles that often accompany being a gifted artist. Chalamet is currently taking a break from therapy, with his supportive therapist’s approval, who told him, “When you’re flying, you’ve got to fly. That’s the whole point.”
Now, Chalamet says he’s intensely focused: “I’m so fucking locked in now. I’m literally actively falling in love with this newfound creative structure, this discipline that I’ve only gained through experience.” In his own unique way, he’s spent the last year exploring his capabilities. He has always prepared meticulously for roles, hiring coaches for dialect, guitar, harmonica, singing, and movement to portray Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” and even traveling with a Ping-Pong table to practice for “Marty Supreme.” Recently, he’s been pushing other boundaries.
When he hosted “Saturday Night Live” earlier this year, he also performed as the musical guest, singing his versions of Dylan’s songs live. He reached out to Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother, to ask who handled their SNL set, then personally hired that team and top musicians to back him up. He’s also funding the design and production of the oversized Ping-Pong heads and “Marty Supreme” track jackets himself, though he expects studio A24 will cover some costs.
“I feel thrilled by it all,” he says, adding that there’s no better way to spend his money than on improving his work. “I found I have a point of view and authorship that’s unusual. I hope it doesn’t rub people the wrong way.”
A few weeks after his SNL appearance, Chalamet won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for “A Complete Unknown.” His acceptance speech, which went viral and was added to YouTube compilations, made such an impact that Josh O’Connor praised it in a GQ profile months later. In it, Chalamet declared he was “in pursuit of greatness,” name-dropping Viola Davis, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Marlon Brando—a list he says was spontaneous. While being nominated was an honor, winning felt better.
Naturally, he was disappointed when he didn’t win the Oscar a week later. “If there are five people at an awards show and four go home losing,” Chalamet remarks, “you don’t think those four are at the restaurant like, ‘Damn, we didn’t win’? I’ve met some deeply generous, humble actors, and maybe some are saying, ‘That was fun.’ But I know for a fact a lot of them are thinking, ‘Fuck!'”
At least he’s honest about it. “People can call me a try-hard, and they can say whatever,” he continues. “But I’m the one actually doing it here.”
Chalamet filmed “Marty Supreme” in the months before “A Complete Unknown” was released. He describes it as “a movie about being an idiot and making bad decisions, but also honoring your ambition and recognizing your talent in the mirror and being singularly focused.” Shot mostly in New York, it’s a large-scale production with nearly 150 speaking roles, reportedly A24’s most expensive film to date.
“I don’t want to look back on things I’ve put out and say, ‘Oh, little old me. Hey, see the movie if you want. It is what it is.’ No,” Chalamet says, emphasizing his commitment. He trained extensively for…He practiced relentlessly, memorizing complex Ping-Pong sequences and repeatedly watching The Last Dance, a documentary about another exceptionally talented and confident athlete. “Timmy and I often talked about the dance-like quality of the matches,” Safdie writes. “I saw Marty as a Baryshnikov or a Balanchine. Some points involved rallies with 14 exchanges, and remembering the combinations was incredibly difficult… It required intense focus, and I took comfort in knowing Timmy would be ready. In a way, it seemed effortless for him.”
Dealing with the paparazzi was more challenging. They soon photographed Chalamet and his co-star Gwyneth Paltrow sharing a passionate embrace in Central Park. The internet exploded with excitement, as did Paltrow’s group chats. “It was so ridiculous,” Paltrow says. “I told them, ‘You guys, calm down.'” But they couldn’t. Chalamet simply has that effect on people, turning even mom chats into excited, wordless exclamations.
In Marty Supreme, which also features Tyler, the Creator, Fran Drescher, Sandra Bernhard, Kevin O’Leary, Odessa A’zion, and Penn Jillette, Paltrow plays a stifled former actress considering a comeback. Her character is married but begins an affair with Marty, who disrupts her fragile balance. This role marks Paltrow’s most significant return to the big screen in over a decade, and Chalamet made the experience enjoyable. “I love that he’s such a free and independent thinker,” she says. “You know how many of us in conversation just say, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah’? He’s more like, ‘No…’ He always asks himself, ‘How do I actually feel about this?'”
Chalamet was equally impressed with Paltrow. “Here’s someone whose sense of self-worth and how her time is respected has nothing to do with the film industry,” he says. “She seemed healthy in that way—and really chic.” He admires her cool detachment, though he admits he can’t relate to it.
Chalamet flew from France to Las Vegas for a Vogue cover shoot with Annie Leibovitz. The process was both exhausting and thrilling—three days in the Nevada desert at Michael Heizer’s massive land-art installation, City. “It’s a completely remote experience,” Chalamet says. (The site is open three days a week with only six visitors per day, but New Yorkers will have better access in February when Gagosian hosts an exhibition of Heizer’s new work.) “Annie is an absolute beast,” Chalamet remarks as he paces around a hotel room during our FaceTime call. “Sometimes when people become so iconic, you forget how much effort they put in. She’s up first at 5:30 a.m. You come downstairs, and she’s already deep into reviewing materials.”
His discussions with Leibovitz about portrait setups and character development reminded Chalamet of working with film directors. “She had this intensely driven creative attitude,” he says. “She was focused solely on capturing great shots, and then I’m sure she moved on to the next project.”
Chalamet used to romanticize the idea of the tortured artist. Now, he values effort and preparedness more—less like a poet, more like an athlete, musician, stand-up comedian, or pulpit rabbi. “Especially with something I’m shooting now for Dune—it’s so massive,” he says of Villeneuve’s third installment, currently in production on elaborate sets in Budapest and Abu Dhabi. “It’s like a moving city. To be able to perform on cue? That’s the real skill.”
This approach also allows him to have more fun. Javier Bardem, who plays the spiritual adviser Stilgar, recalls Chalamet and Zendaya entertaining themselves between takes at base camp, “rapping, doing hip-hop music, and singing.”
“I find it really valuable when…””English actors and actresses can be very focused while also being able to relax between takes,” Bardem remarks. “That’s exactly what I observed in him.”
“I’m an old man,” he adds with a smile, “but it was enjoyable to watch them work.”
The central theme of Marty Supreme explores whether one must be selfish to achieve greatness. Before I can fully present this question to Chalamet, he begins answering it. “I had a friend in school—a girl named Grace—whose parents had the most beautiful, amazing marriage.” He pauses, looking slightly embarrassed. “This isn’t directly about greatness, so it’s a bit off-topic, but it showed me that excellence can exist without being difficult.” We had been talking about ambition and the pursuit of success, but he wanted to discuss the ideal of a fulfilling relationship instead.
He continues: “No, you don’t have to be selfish to be great. I know this because I’ve worked with directors who are incredible at their jobs and also very present in their family lives. Even Denis, who I’m working with now, amazes me. It was his birthday two days ago, and one of his kids flew out to surprise him. He was hugging him and crying on set, and people were recording it. Denis is a master of his craft and a great family man.”
Chalamet won’t discuss his relationship with girlfriend Kylie Jenner (“I say that without any hesitation; I just don’t have anything to share”), but he’s open about entering a new phase of his life. His sister recently had a baby. “Zendaya is engaged. Anya is married,” he notes, referring to two of his Dune co-stars.
Without giving away spoilers, the theme of fatherhood also looms in Marty Supreme. It’s something Chalamet would like to experience. He recalls watching an interview with someone he “definitely” won’t name, who was “bragging about not having kids and how much time it gave them for other things.” He and his friend looked at each other and thought, “Holy shit. Oh my God. That’s bleak.” He acknowledges that some people can’t have children or aren’t in a position to, but he believes procreation is a fundamental purpose of life.
Yes, children: “That could be on the radar,” he says.
Throughout our conversations, Chalamet often revisits and reframes his points, experimenting with new metaphors and searching for the right words to express his thoughts or feelings. He touches on topics like COVID-era protocols, intimacy coordinators, social consciousness, personal integration, and the nature of genius (clarifying that he’s not claiming it for himself).
At one point, while analyzing his own ambition, he hesitates: “Do I even want to say this? Maybe not.” But then he proceeds anyway. Because, in the end, who cares? If he regrets something he said—or even our entire conversation—it won’t matter. He’ll grow older and, hopefully, won’t look back on interviews he gave at 29. What a relief.
After Dune, Chalamet has “a clean slate.” He and director James Mangold plan to work together again on a recently announced film called High Side. Otherwise, he wants to keep his options—and his mind—open. He’s been attending plays, like Punch in New York and more unconventional productions in Los Angeles. “I feel like theater in LA is kind of radical,” he says. “I was at a show with about 61 people in the audience, and it was pretty out-there. I couldn’t believe it. I thought, Wow, I can’t believe this is in West Hollywood.”
Given that his work depends on distribution, Chalamet is fascinated by what gets seen and how. “I look around and wonder, Who comes to this? And then I see Robert Pattinson in the front row, with his chin on his fist.” Afterward, the two went out for a beer. The vampire…and the messiah, plotting the future of movies. I had previously asked if—given his deep respect for filmmakers—he ever intended to direct a feature film, but he had avoided answering. As our conversation drew to a close, he returned to the topic.
“If I ever do it, it won’t be for vanity,” he says. “It won’t be a case of me wanting to do something and people saying, ‘Okay, you can because you’re famous enough, but you’re not actually good at it.'” For Chalamet, if he can’t do it at “the highest level,” it’s not worth doing at all. That doesn’t mean it would necessarily be a success, though.
Years ago, he read an interview with one of his idols, Daniel Day-Lewis. “He said, ‘You risk being foolish,'” Chalamet recalls. “‘You risk being foolish, and that’s really the only risk.'” With those stakes and his own talent, he thinks, “Why not go all out?”
In this story: grooming by Pircilla Pae; tailoring by Megan Bright from Tailor Here.
Produced by AL Studio. Set Design: Mary Howard.
City, 1970–2022 © Michael Heizer. Courtesy of Triple Aught Foundation. Visits to City can be reserved at tripleaughtfoundation.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of helpful and concise FAQs about Timothée Chalamets Universe Vogues December 2025 Cover Feature
General Beginner Questions
Q What is Timothée Chalamets Universe in Vogue
A Its the title of the main cover story and feature article in the December 2025 issue of Vogue magazine which profiles the actor Timothée Chalamet
Q Who is on the cover
A Actor Timothée Chalamet is the sole subject of the cover and the feature
Q Which Vogue edition is this for
A This is for the American edition of Vogue
Q When will the issue be available
A The December 2025 issue will hit newsstands and be available digitally in midtolate November 2025
Q Who photographed the cover
A The cover was shot by renowned fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz
Q Who styled the shoot
A The feature was styled by Vogues EditorinChief Anna Wintour and Law Roach
Content Theme Questions
Q What is the main focus or theme of the feature
A The article explores Chalamets career evolution his approach to fame his upcoming projects and his personal style framing it as his own unique universe in Hollywood
Q What kind of fashion can we expect to see in the photoshoot
A The shoot features a mix of highfashion looks from designers like Haider Ackermann custom pieces and more accessible personal wardrobe choices that reflect his eclectic style
Q Does the article include new information or interviews
A Yes it is based on a new indepth interview conducted specifically for this Vogue feature offering fresh insights and quotes from Chalamet himself
Q Are there any exclusive reveals about his future projects
A The article is expected to include some new details or behindthescenes stories about his upcoming films slated for 2026
Practical Fan Questions
Q How can I get a copy of the magazine
A You can buy it at most major bookstores newsstands and magazine retailers You can also purchase a digital copy through the Vogue website or