Wonka star Timothée Chalamet has been issued a light-hearted warning after offering his unexpected verdict on the UK’s “sexiest” regional accent.
The American-French actor, 27, was asked during an interview with LadBible to name the most appealing accent in the country.
Citing his fondness for the tenors of Essex and the “middle-aged northern accent”, Chalamet then singled out the former UK City of Culture, Hull.
“I like the Hull accent... Hull is sexy,” he said, prompting chuckles from some of the journalists in attendance.
“Why is everyone cracking up?” he asked.
The clip went viral on social media, and was subsequently discussed on BBC Radio 5Live, with actor and comedian Lucy Beaumont.
Beaumont, who hails from Hull and wrote the sitcom Hullraisers, jokingly remarked: “I think he’s on drugs. I’ve had this accent for 40 years and no-one has ever told me it’s sexy.”
She continued: “He looks like a very lovely young man and he should stay away from the region or he’ll be savaged by middle-aged Hull women.”
Chalamet can currently be seen in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel Wonka.
Timothée Chalamet in ‘Wonka'— (Jaap Buittendijk/Warner Bros)
Directed by Paddington filmmaker Paul King, Wonka is set years before the events of Roald Dahl’s story, and charts the rise of ace chocolatier Willy Wonka, played by Chalamet.
In a four-star review of the film for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey writes: “Wonka only works as a prequel to 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory if we’ve suffered collective amnesia. Remember how much of the original film is dedicated to the inflicting of Old Testament-style punishments on ungrateful children? Or the outré foxiness of Gene Wilder’s central performance? This new Wonka – and its star Timothée Chalamet – certainly doesn’t retain that. Nor does the film incorporate any of the morbid psychedelia of the Wilder movie’s tunnel scene, which most people forget includes a shot of a chicken being decapitated.
“Yet, Wonka’s inability to imitate its predecessor doesn’t feel like a failure when you consider this: it’s not so much a prequel to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as it is a companion piece to director Paul King’s two Paddington movies. Much like those genteel, ursine escapades – released in 2014 and 2017, respectively – Wonka is old-fashioned, cinematic magic writ large. It whips up wit, warmth, and the beloved memories of classics past: there’s a big dollop of Mary Poppins here, a little Matilda, some Oliver!, and, then, unexpectedly, a pinch of Les Misérables.”
Wonka is out in cinemas now.
