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15 May

Exclusive: Timothée Chalamet on his French roots and becoming

For Dazed Beauty, Timmy discusses his first-ever fragrance campaign, his upcoming role as Bob Dylan and the facility of scent as creative self-expression

Timothée Chalamet is officially a Chanel girlie. Today, the style house announced him as the brand new face of its men’s fragrance, Bleu de Chanel. It’s the primary time Chalamet has been an envoy of any fashion or beauty label, and marks a latest era for the scent – one which flirts with a more edgy and audacious style that’s open to all possibilities.

Shot by Mario Sorrenti, the official campaign will drop in June so Timmy stans don’t have long to attend until they’ll feast on latest content. Until then, Dazed Beauty has some exclusive images of the young star brooding and evocative to tide you over. A brief film directed by Martin Scorsese – the paparazzi images of which you’ve been seeing all around the web – can also be coming within the autumn. Scorsese is a long-time friend of the Bleu de Chanel fragrance, having directed Gaspard Ulliel’s debut campaign in 2010. Chanel’s first-ever male ambassador, Ulliel was the face of Bleu de Chanel for 12 years until the French actor’s sad passing last yr.

For the half-French Chalamet, collaborating with Chanel felt like a natural fit and one which he was excited to go all in on. “I didn’t need to sell myself on anything once I was asked to change into the brand new ambassador of Bleu de Chanel,” he says. “The choice was not dissimilar to agreeing to do a movie. I’m lucky to be at a spot in my profession where I even have the chance to curate and select projects that strike my passion. When so many fingers within the glove feel like they fit, it becomes a no brainer.”

Below, Chalamet chats about identity and philosophy, his anticipated upcoming role playing Bob Dylan, and his belief that fragrance is considered one of the last bastions of creative self-expression that hasn’t been commodified in visual media.

Is there a memory of fragrance that stands out to you out of your childhood?

Timothée Chalamet: Growing up, my sister danced at Rosella Hightower dance school in Mougins, south of France. Once, our mom took us to a perfumery in Grasse. I loved the experience, and I got a cedarwood-scented room spray to bring back to my bedroom. I by accident sprayed it on my clothes, and the smell was overwhelming. Yet I remember very vividly feeling on the time that it was a creative expression to curate the scent of my room. That felt very French and nostalgic.

There’s a lot nuance and subjectivity that revolves around the facility of scent and what it represents, evokes and invokes. What role does fragrance play in helping to shape, inform and bolster one’s identity and the way we show up on the planet?

Timothée Chalamet: What jumps out to me is identity. It’s such a topical word without delay. Creative empowerment and the way you style yourself to not slot in a box isn’t anything latest but continues to be amplified by social media. I used to be pondering, as I used to be on my way here today, that scent is something that can’t come across in visual media. It’s considered one of the last bastions of creative self-expression that hasn’t been commodified in that visual space. It’s really for you – just like how the way in which through which clothes feel in your body can never come across to anyone, whereas how they give the impression of being and fall in your body are what comes across to everyone.

What elements of your French-American upbringing define your personality?

Timothée Chalamet: I had a cultural upbringing that wasn’t like anybody around me. I spent summers in a small French village called Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, which couldn’t be more opposite from my life in Recent York. Yet the duality about what I used to be gravitating toward artistically or culturally – whether it was Jay-Z, arthouse cinema, literature, my Saint-Étienne soccer fandom, the American lore and lure of McDonald’s, and Xbox 360 –was all over. But it surely all the time felt good and open-ended.

It seems you shape-shift between the dualities of French and American life somewhat innately.

Timothée Chalamet: For me, there was such a stark contrast between the self-empowerment of the USA and even the connection I had with acting at a young age versus how things are done in France, where it felt like there was such respect for time, tradition and conversation. It’s things that, growing up, I didn’t have respect for on the time because I used to be drawn to more stereotypical American habits. As I’ve grown older, I even have connected more with the French side of myself, which is why the Bleu de Chanel ambassadorship is appealing presently.

Through the pandemic, I used to be walking around Paris and I saw a receipt on a café table that had clearly been sitting there for 3 hours next to 4 people still deep in discussion. In LA, persons are at dinner for less than 45 minutes. America is ahead of the times and trendsetting in some ways, but at the identical time France has fashion, self-expression, and identity that clashes beautifully with a really traditional French passive lifestyle. I’ve come to grasp and embrace these contradictions of every culture and inside myself.

What are you most inquisitive about without delay?

Timothée Chalamet: Truthfully, I’ve been pondering lots about how life would’ve been in Recent York within the 60s! As I prepare to play Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, I keep ruminating on what it will need to have been like downtown on the time – mainly because living downtown is so expensive nowadays. What would it not have been like when it was inexpensive and accessible, and at the identical time so wealthy in art and culture? I’m wrapping my head around that greater than anything because even I grew up in a special Recent York than Recent York is now. In order that’s the considered the day.

What are you most grateful for in the intervening time?

I’m thankful for all the things without delay, and that I can reasonably know where I’m resting my head at night and that I get to maintain doing something I like to do. I’m grateful to start out this relationship with Chanel and to be a small part within the brand’s storied and elevated legacy by helping to tell the subsequent chapter of Bleu de Chanel.


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