Frank Ocean Interviewed Timothée Chalamet About Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird

By Scott Russell  |  February 6, 2018 | 10:38am
Photos by Christopher Polk/Getty, Kevin Winter/Getty
Movies News Timothée Chalamet
Frank Ocean Interviewed Timothée Chalamet About Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird

In a lovely collision of talents, visionary musician Frank Ocean interviewed Oscar-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet for VMAN Magazine (as The Fader points out), with their friendly discussion covering everything from Chalamet’s roles in Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird, to New York City’s best pizza spots, to their favorite directors, to how Chalamet’s first name is pronounced.

A fun wrinkle of their talk is the fact that Chalamet is an avowed Ocean fan—the very suggestion that the singer had seen Call Me By Your Name recently rendered Chalamet speechless.

As such, Chalamet’s first words to Ocean in the VMAN interview are, “I’m such a huge fan. This is going to be a real test to keep my voice level and keep this as normal of a conversation as possible.” (Ocean’s kindhearted response: “You got this.”)

After the two touch on the origins of Chalamet’s name (It’s French—“The real pronunciation is Timo-tay,” he says), Ocean asks, “Has anyone on the street called you Elio yet?” in reference to Chalamet’s Call Me By Your Name character; Chalamet says in his reply, “I actually get more people stopping me […] and going, ‘Is that the douchebag from Lady Bird?’ So that’s awesome.”

Of Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird, Ocean says:

Those films are excellent. I just finished Call Me By Your Name, the novel, yesterday, for more insight before we talked. It’s a really special role and an opportune, appropriate time right now in popular culture. I think it’s also good for you that this is your opening song. It’s such a proper foundation, to do roles like these that have so much heart and vulnerability in the very beginning, completely boutique or small, but on the lips of so many. Congratulations for the work and its effect and how it’s made people feel; it’s tremendous.

Ocean then wisely changes the subject to Chalamet’s high school rap videos, saving the actor from literally melting in response to the singer’s praise.

Another wonderful moment comes soon after, when Ocean references dreaming, to which Chalamet responds by quoting a couple of lines from Ocean’s Blonde song “Seigfried.” Ocean demurs, laughing and replying, “Don’t do that.”

The two go on to discuss their favorite films (Ocean loves Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master), ‘80s fashion and music in Call Me By Your Name (“That [Call Me By Your Name] soundtrack is super good,” says Ocean), and the nature of creativity.

“Thank you so much for this,” Chalamet says at the end of their talk. “It’s been such an experience, sharing personal thoughts about artistry and acting with someone that’s influenced me in many ways. This means the world to me.”

Call Me By Your Name recently expanded to theaters nationwide. Both Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird landed near the top of Paste’s list of 2017’s best films, not to mention that they both scored Best Picture nominations ahead of this year’s 90th Academy Awards.

Ocean’s Blonde was one of our top albums of 2016.

You can read Ocean and Chalamet’s full interview over at VMAN Magazine.

 
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