Whether it is on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, a red carpet for a screening, or his Instagram, there is something that Timothée Chalamet continues to address— that addiction and overdosing is one of the biggest killers in the United States today. He says there is “a lot of trepidation in having an open conversation about it.” And that’s why his new film “Beautiful Boy” means so much to the actor.
“It felt like this story’s urgent and it’s something that, not only a lot of people in America and in the world are going through right now, but a lot of young people are going through, tragically,” Chalamet says in our recent interview. “And there’s this challenge of becoming an adult over the course of one’s life, that’s already difficult enough. If you combine that with trying to beat an addiction, you understand how these challenges can become insurmountable for people. It felt like there was a reason to tell this story.”
The film is an adaptation of two memoirs. One was by journalist David Sheff, who wrote a book titled “Beautiful Boy,” about trying to guide his son through a drug addiction. The second book, “Tweak,” was by David’s son Nic Sheff; in it, he tells the firsthand story of addiction and his efforts at recovery. Released simultaneously, the two books show the full scope of how drugs affect not only the addicted but their loved ones, too.
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“The role makes sublime use of Carell’s unshakable likability – you feel his desperation, and his desire to make this into something he can control,” Jason Bailey wrote in our review of the film. “Ever the journalist, he decides to learn everything there is to know about crystal meth, his son’s drug of choice; in the interest of research, he even tries it himself. But it’s not the kind of thing you can puzzle out, and nothing in the movie is more truthful than his son’s explanation of why he does it: ‘When I tried it, I felt better than I ever had. So I kept doing it.'”
“Beautiful Boy” is out in select theatres in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, with more theatres premiering in the following weeks.
Here are a couple clips from the film, as well as the Spotify link to the soundtrack: