TORONTO – Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell are sitting in a hotel conference room. They are knee deep in the grind of attending a film festival as talent. You’ve got red carpets, video interviews, radio interviews and, of course, traditional print interviews. It’s later in the afternoon this particular day so they’ve been discussing their new film, Felix Van Groeningen’s “Beautiful Boy,” in some capacity for over 24 hours straight. Somehow, Chalamet still has a bright and energetic smile on his face.
The 22-year-old has had quite a year since breaking out with an Oscar-nominated role in “Call Me By Your Name” and appearing in a second Best Picture nominee, “Lady Bird.” He’s amassed a huge following on social media networks such as Instagram (2.2 million followers) and recently finished production as King Henry V in David Michôd’s “The King” which Netflix will release in 2019. And, oh yes, he’s also been reported as the lead in Denis Villeneuve’s new adaptation of the classic novel, “Dune.”
READ MORE: Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell in “Beautiful Boy” [TIFF Review]
Little is known about Villeneuve’s vision for the Frank Herbert classic, but reports detailing Chalamet’s casting along with Rebecca Ferguson has sparked tremendous interest. Chalamet is relatively new at being quizzed over future, secretive projects. He managed to provide some insight on why he would consider taking the role.
“Denis is one of my favorite filmmakers. I want to work with any and all, and that’s not a hyperbolic use of those words, ‘great filmmakers.’ But, what’s especially inspiring about Denis films are the size of them,” Chalamet says. “They reach a big audience. These are films meant to play in front of big crowds. And, conversely, he’s also made movies like ‘Incendies’ that are like intimate affairs. So, that would be a dream come true and is going to be a dream come true. And, I’m chomping at the bits for that experience. I can’t wait.”
And that’s all he was going to say about that. What he was much more open about was his already acclaimed performance as Nic Sheff and the “Beautiful Boy” in question. Based on two separate memoirs by both Nic Sheff and his father, David Sheff, the film chronicles how Nic battled serious drug addiction in his college years and how his parents tried to help. Carell plays David and the story is introduced from his perspective.
The Amazon Studios release is one of two contemporary films this fall (the other being Roadside Attractions’ “Ben is Back”) that deal with young men dealing with addiction and the impact on their families. Chalamet has a theory on why these films may resonate with audiences today.
“It felt like this story’s urgent and it’s something that, not only a lot of people in America and in the world are going through right now, but a lot of young people are going through, tragically,” Chalamet says. “And there’s this challenge of becoming an adult over the course of one’s life, that’s already difficult enough. If you combine that with trying to beat an addiction, you understand how these challenges can become insurmountable for people. It felt like there was a reason to tell this story.”
Meeting Nic and David Sheff was obviously key for both actors, but Carell says they were “generally hands off” when it came to their portrayal on screen.
“I didn’t get the sense that they wanted to be there as we were shooting. Not, that they weren’t invited, but I think they wanted to keep a bit of a respectful distance,” Carell recalls. “Meeting David, I got the sense immediately that he wanted this to be our telling of their story. That he wasn’t going to be micromanaging. That he was trusting that all the people involved would take the right amount of care with the books. Which I think was a really big faith on his part.”
Chalamet adds, “When I sat down with Nic before the movie the greatest gift he gave me was his implicit understanding that it would be a movie. And, he knew that Steve, Felix, Maura [Tierney], Amy [Ryan] and I were going to set out to get it as accurately as possible. When he says to me yesterday, ‘God, I wish I had your wardrobe from the movie, it’s what I would have worn when I was younger.’ Then, I feel like we did a good job, and yet, I think by the laws of reality, it’s not going to be what it actually was.”
There are a few fleeting moments of joy in the picture, but for the most part, it’s a film that takes its subject matter seriously. There are a number of heavy moments in the film and both Chalamet and Carell agreed it was the scenes they had to do on the phone by themselves that were actually the most difficult.
“It goes back to high school drama class for me where if you get lost in the scene you go to the other person in the scene and try to focus on them and take them in and distract yourself almost,” Chalamet says. “But, if it’s all on the phone then they’re not there. And the phone calls in this movie aren’t so fun calls, so those scenes were daunting.”
One of Carell’s finest moments is when he, as David, has to reject Nic so that his son can finally reach rock bottom on his own terms. It was tougher to pull off than the “Foxcatcher” star was expecting.
“That scene denying a pleading, desperate son, goes against every fiber of my being as a Dad,” Carell says. “That was a tough one. It’s a tough one to even understand, getting to that point in your life, when you have to for the sake of everything and everyone around you, turn away. It’s hard to imagine being at that place with a child.”
“Beautiful Boy” moved many at its world premiere and subsequent showing at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival last month and Chalamet, for one, is proud of what an “honest” depiction it is of people suffering from drug addiction.
“That’s why I’m excited for people my age to see it in many ways,” Chalamet says. “Because I do believe that this is a very urgent thing that a lot of people are dealing with.”
“Beautiful Boy” opens in limited release on Oct. 12.