At the Screen Actors Guild Awards back in February, Timothée Chalamet laid out his mission statement with a bracing, earnest clarity. “I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” the actor told a room full of fellow performers, after accepting the Best Actor trophy for his portrayal of a young Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown. “I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats.”
Acting may be a profession of rampant egos, but it is surprisingly rare to hear an actor set out his ambitions, his desire to be the best, in such a straightforward way. As Chalamet put it, his industry peers “don’t usually talk like that”. Their awards speeches tend to be full of self-deprecation, carefully curated relatability or attempts at positioning themselves as some kind of underdog, rather than striving for more recognition, status or fame.
