As Timothée Chalamet’s “Wonka” has quietly crossed the $600 million mark worldwide—a remarkable figure given the film wasn’t a box office smash but clearly had great sustained longevity theatrically—the actor is starring down his next lead role in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” (read our review) It’s a film whose hype is so large at the moment it suggests it could best that “Wonka” record, but we’ll see if it has the same kind of four-quadrant appeal.
Regardless, in a new New York Times interview with Chalamet and director Denis Villeneuve, Chalamet shared some thoughts on superhero movies and career advice from fellow actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
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“Well, Leonardo DiCaprio said to me, “No superhero movies, no hard drugs.” Which I thought was very good [advice],” he said.
And well, now you know where DiCaprio stands on cape movies. Villeneuve asked which piece of advice he follows, and he said both. Still, he added that Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ movie was a seminal piece of influential filmmaking that got him into the business, so anything’s possible.
“I follow them both!” he said, answering Villeneuve’s question. “But the movie that made me want to act is a superhero movie, “The Dark Knight.” If the script were great, if the director was great, I’d have to consider it.”
The conversation moved on from there, but honestly, it’s no real surprise to hear DiCaprio’s thoughts. This is an actor who seemingly has drawn a line in the sand between the two camps of superhero films and cinema and seems happy to stick with making films with Hollywood auteurs like Martin Scorsese, Alejandro Inarritu, Quentin Tarantino, and the likes. DiCaprio’s next film is an untitled one with Paul Thomas Anderson, another auteur he’s hoped to work with since “Boogie Nights,” so it’s probably a sure bet he’ll remain in this vein, the only question being, what auteurs he will set his sights on next.
At 28 years old and obviously more than 20 years younger than DiCaprio (49), it’s probably little surprise that Chalamet still remains open to the genre. While he did say DiCaprio’s advice was “good,” clearly, if Christopher Nolan or someone of that ilk comes knocking with a good script, he’ll at least give it a read and a proper consideration, which is probably good career advice to follow, too (let’s not forget that Chalamet has a small part in the first half of “Interstellar” too, so working with Nolan again is probably on his mind).
But what do you think? Would Chalamet go to Marvel, or DC, or elsewhere if called? Truth be told if he’s waiting for someone like Nolan to rejoin the superhero fold, he’ll probably be waiting forever, but one supposes time will tell if another A-list filmmaker of that kind of standing ever attempts the genre. Until then, perhaps the closest you’ll get is Chalamet as the heroic Paul Atreides in “Dune: Part Two.”