Timothée Chalamet was quoted in a recent interview with People magazine saying that his upcoming musical “Wonka” is his mother’s favorite Timothée Chalamet movie. It turns out that’s not the case. Appearing on “Good Morning America,” the Oscar-nominated actor revealed his mom, Nicole Flender, actually called him after the People interview ran in order to correct him.
“I thought this was her favorite movie. She called me yesterday, she corrected me. She said ‘Beautiful Boy’ was her favorite,” Chalamet said. “When she saw [‘Wonka’], she did say, ‘It’s nice to see you smile.’”
Chalamet originally told People that “Wonka” is “maybe her favorite thing I’ve ever been in,” adding at the time: “I think she saw ‘Bones and All’ and said, ‘You gotta be happier in your movies!’ But this is the tradition. I come from a musical theater family, and this is more in line of the kind of movie I would’ve thought I’d be doing 10 years ago, if I was lucky enough to work at all. This was so fun to work on. This was unlike anything I’ve ever worked on, I think.”
“Wonka” stars Chalamet as a young Willy Wonka before the character becomes a world famous chocolatier. The prequel film is a musical targeted at family audiences, a far cry from Flender’s preferred Chalamet movie “Beautiful Boy.” That 2018 drama stars Chalamet as a young man whose drug addiction strains his relationship with his father (played by Steve Carell). Chalamet earned nominations for best supporting actor at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, BAFTA Awards and Critics’ Choice Awards for his work in “Beautiful Boy.”
Chalamet recently admitted to GamesRadar+ that he originally worried “Wonka” might be a “cynical money grab” given Hollywood studios’ recent trend of rebooting every bit of IP it possibly can. Chalamet was offered the chance to lead the film without having to audition.
“Like many people, when there are remakes, I feel very protective over the original character and versions you love,” Chalamet said. “Your eyebrows go up with skepticism about [whether] this is a legitimate, worthwhile story or a cynical money grab. But I was reading the first three pages of the script, and the song ‘Hat Full of Dreams’ was in there.”
Chalamet’s casting has paid off the for the film, which has earned strong reviews. Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman says Chalamet makes “a winning Willy Wonka” in a film that’s a “fun, rousing, impeccably staged, jaw-droppingly old-fashioned musical prequel.”
“Wonka” opens December 15 in U.S. theaters from Warner Bros. Watch the actor’s appearance on “Good Morning America” in the clip below.