Chalamet has the hunger-is greatness within reach?

The star could surprise the bookies and win an Oscar for A Complete Unknown’. What matters is that he’s reaching for the very top and isn’t afraid to say it,

- Mike Bedigan

Timothée Chalamet is in pursuit of greatness. They’re not my words – nor the words of the millions of fans that have made him his generation’s buzziest male actor – but his own.

Accepting the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award for Best Actor award last Sunday, for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, the 29-year-old was straight to the point. Invoking the names of sporting icons such as Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps, as well as heavyweights of his own industry, Chalamet set his sights on immortality. “I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” he said. “I know people don’t usually talk like this but I want to be one of the greats.” For some Hollywood luvvies, such an earnest statement of intent would seem self-aggrandising, cringeworthy, or downright ludicrous. But Chalamet is another story.

In the seven years since his first Oscar nomination – for his role in Luca Guadagnino’s lush, queer romance Call Me By Your Name – Chalamet has been relentless in his dedication to his craft. He has been harrowing and intense in the addiction drama Beautiful Boy (2018), rakish and lovelorn in Little Women (2019), infectiously whimsical in the Roald Dahl prequel Wonka