Timothée Chalamet didn’t need to audition for Wonka thanks to his rap videos!

Paul King, the director, loves Lil Timmy Tim.

The director of Wonka confided that it was obvious to him that Timothée Chalamet should play the role of the famous chocolate maker. “It was a direct offer because he’s awesome and he was the only person I think could do it“, Paul King told Rolling Stone magazine.

The talent of Timothé Chalamet was confirmed in 2017 with his interpretation in the film Call me by your name which earned him a nomination for Oscars, but it was the videos of his rapper character “Lil Timmy Tim” that convinced the director he was made for the role of Willy Wonka. They date from when he was a student at Laguardia High School in New York, a school reserved for gifted students in the artistic field.

“It’s Timothée Chalamet and his absurd life that his high school shows are on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of views. So being a big fan of Timmy Chalamet I knew he could sing and dance well.“

King continues:I knew he had all that in his arsenal, but I didn’t know how good he was. When I spoke to him, he was very enthusiastic. He had done tap dancing in high school and he said to himself: ‘I would like to show people that I can do this‘.“

King qualified Wonka of “true“musical, which turned out to be a”very fun challenge“, adding: “With the film set in the late 1940s, it was a very fun tribute to the golden age of MGM musicals.“.

The director of Paddington hinted that Wonka would be a film rather close to the version of Charlie and the chocolate factory from 1971 with Gene Wilder.

“It is certain that I tried to have darker characters than those which one finds in a film of Paddington, for example. It’s a crueler, meaner world that Willy Wonka finds himself in, because that’s the kind of town Charlie grows up in.“said Paul King.”Unlike Paddington’s world, not everyone is nice in Roald Dahl’s world. I really got to play with these preposterous ideas, but I hope I don’t harm a generation of children“.

Chalamet is also confirmed to star in James Mangold’s upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown.

Wonkadirected by Paul King, starring Timothée Chalamet, Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson, Matt Lucas, will be released in theaters on December 15, 2023.