Meet Timothée Chalamet: 9 Things to Know About the 'Call Me by Your Name' Star

ET's rounded up everything you need to know about the young New York City native ahead of Sunday's Golden Globes.

If you're not familiar with Timothée Chalamet, get to it!

The actor is taking Hollywood by storm and he's not stopping anytime soon. Ahead of Sunday's Golden Globes, ET's rounded up everything you need to know about the young New York City native.

1. He's only 22 years old.

When the nominations for the 75th Golden Globe Awards were announced at the end of last year, everyone was buzzing about Chalamet, who's the youngest star nominated for the Best Actor, Drama film accolade for his role as Elio in director Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name. He's up against Gary Oldman, 59 (Darkest Hour), Daniel-Day Lewis, 60 (Phantom Thread), Tom Hanks, 61 (The Post) and Denzel Washington, 63 (Roman J. Israel, Esq.).

2. Call Me by Your Name isn't the only Globe-nominated movie he's starred in this year.

Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Palm Springs International Film Festival

Chalamet also played Kyle Scheible in Greta Gerwig's directorial debut, Lady Bird, with another young, standout star you need to know this awards season, 23-year-old Saoirse Ronan. Call Me by Your Name received three nominations, while Lady Bird has four.

"[Timothée's] a young Christian Bale crossed with a young Daniel Day-Lewis with a sprinkle of young Leonardo DiCaprio," Gerwig told GQ last November. "And then raised speaking French in Manhattan and given a Mensa-level IQ."

3. A-listers are already predicting Chalamet to have an incredibly successful future.

When Matthew McConaughey interviewed Chalamet for Interview magazine last June, he had nothing but amazing things to say about him, while offering up some advice.

"Let's recognize that there are no 'Help Wanted' signs in this business," said McConaughey, who played Chalamet's onscreen father in Interstellar in 2014. "And you're in now."

"You've got to be attacking stuff, man -- going after it and getting better," he suggested. "It's not like being a professional athlete where your peak years are your late-20s. You’ve got an opportunity to get better and better and better. The work will start to mean more and more and more to you."

4. You may have seen him in some of your favorite movies and TV shows.  

Before landing Interstellar, Chalamet completed a few short films, like Men, Women & Children and Trooper, and a role on Homeland. Prior to that, the breakout actor also made appearances on shows like Royal Pains and Law & Order.

5. He's a man of many talents...

Back when he was in high school, Chalamet had a passion for creating rap music and videos under the name "Timmy T," some which were recently exposed when he was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

"He's got all kinds of skills," his co-star, Armie Hammer, revealed. "I mean, all kinds. This makes me so happy!"

"The backstory behind that [video] is, that was a school project that he had to actually turn in for a statistics class," Hammer added. "So, everyone else wrote out all these sort of big statistics papers and all that, and he turned in this awesome rap. And the teacher only gave him, like, a D+ or something. Shame on you, whoever you are!"

Additionally, Chalamet had to learn Italian and how to play the piano and guitar for his role in Call Me by Your Name. Oh, and did we mention he's fluent in French?

6. ...but school isn't really his thing.

In the aforementioned interview with McConaughey, Chalamet revealed that after filming Interstellar, he spent a year studying at Columbia University in NYC before dropping out.

"I just kind of floundered," he admitted. "Maybe it wasn’t the right place for me."

"Columbia takes a wholehearted academic commitment that I think I have in me, but it was just not where my mind was at the time," he continued. "I'd just left working a month and a half in Canada with my favorite director and you, one of my favorite actors, and had to go back into a structured environment. It was just hard."

Instead, he moved into an apartment in the Bronx and has "been getting a nice steady stream of work" ever since. "I couldn’t be more grateful," he exclaimed.

7. He's kissed Selena Gomez.

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The two are currently working together on Woody Allen's latest project, A Rainy Day in New York, and were spotted sharing a smooch in the rain in New York City’s Central Park back in September.

"I'd seen Spring Breakers, because Harmony Korine’s one of my favorite directors," Chalamet said, when GQ asked if he was familiar with Gomez's previous acting work. "But also, you know, I went to high school from 2009 to 2013."

The film also stars Jude Law, Diego Luna, Liev Schreiber and Elle Fanning.

8. And was once linked to Madonna's daughter, Lourdes Leon!

The two both attended the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in NYC, and sparked romance rumors in 2013. During a chat with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM last November, Chalamet recalled "a really fun night" with the 21-year-old singer.

"I usually don't talk about this stuff," he said, blushing, and alluding to the fact that they're still friends. "She hasn't seen [Call Me by Your Name] yet, but she's excited to."

"She keeps teasing me about it," he continued. "The movie itself she's very excited about, and the reception it's been getting is only a great thing, it's like the public appearance stuff around it, some of the late-night things I've done. I'll get made fun of."

9. You can catch him in another big film this month.
 


Next up, Chalamet -- who just wrapped filming on Beautiful Boy with Steve Carell -- will star in Hostiles, a western film written and directed by Scott Cooper about white redemption in the Old West.

The heartthrob plays Pvt. Philippe DeJardin in the movie, which also stars Christian Bale, Scott Shepherd and Rosamund Pike.

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