Everybody’s talking about Timothée! The gen-Z French-American heart-throb and original “internet boyfriend” is receiving the best reviews of his career for Josh Safdie’s frenetic ping-pong flick Marty Supreme, while also making waves for his idiosyncratic approach to celebrity in an age somewhat lacking in star power. He has even got Gwyneth Paltrow’s seal of approval. Here are seven reasons why “Chalamania” is back.
1. He seems a cert for an Oscar
Twice Oscar-nominated and not yet 30, Chalamet lost out to Adrien Brody for best actor at this year’s awards, but is already the favourite to win in 2026 for Marty Supreme. Early reviews say the film presents Chalamet at “his most infectiously charismatic”, playing a table tennis player with a little paddle and big dreams, while the internet has already been thrilled with his character’s tiny goatee and tank top. Director Josh Safdie recently told Vogue that the actor shared similarities with his character – “a man possessed and blinded by his ambition”. The star has certainly been energetically promoting the picture, as “the best thing I’ve been in”. The press rollout has been a performance in and of itself, Chalamet making appearances with an entourage wearing orange ping-pong balls over their heads. And, in an 18-minute-long video skit purporting to show a marketing meeting with the studio A24, he poked fun at his public image as an intensely ambitious method actor, throwing out increasingly ludicrous ideas for promotional reasons. You wonder if the Academy will be forced to introduce a new category: best marketing campaign.
2. He has defined the ‘garment of 2025’
Even Marty Supreme’s merchandise is making headlines. A clothing line produced with the streetwear brand Nahmias immediately sold out at a pop-up event in New York last week, with items already fetching thousands of dollars on resale sites. Chalamet reportedly spent six months working on the designs. Had you been wondering what, at this late stage of 2025, might constitute the year’s “defining garment”, GQ has suggested that it’s the zip-up jacket bearing the film’s title, as pictured on a host of Chalamet’s famous friends such as the rappers Frank Ocean and Kid Cudi, and NFL quarterback Tom Brady. Even Chalamet’s mother has struggled to cop the covetable limited-edition layer. Earlier this week, Chalamet posted on Instagram her texted request to “please send me a Marty Supreme jacket” and to send it “so it’s timely and I can wear it to the premiere”.
3. ‘Chalamania’ is back in a big way
Though the internet now claims Paul Mescal, Josh O’Connor and many other handsome young stars as its “boyfriends”, Chalamet remains its fiercest love. Indeed the “Chalamania” first documented in 2018 is now back with the hype around Marty Supreme inspiring a new wave of online tributes. A fan turned the marketing-meeting skit into an interactive website, enabling users to “Zoom with Timothée” and picture their own strained response to Chalamet’s suggestion to paint the Statue of Liberty orange or his repeated interjections of “Schwap!” for emphasis. Meanwhile, his best-known fan is getting her own press. A 59-year-old US healthcare worker who posts on X as @ClubChalamet has gained a cult following for her impassioned and lengthy commentary on the actor, and was this week profiled by the Wall Street Journal. Simone Cromer defended her parasocial activity to the paper, saying she was “just a fan”: “I’m not a stalker. I’m not weird … I can’t change the fact that I was born in 1966.”
4. He is still in pursuit of greatness …
Chalamet is an alleged “nepo baby”. His older sister Pauline is also an actor (best known for The Sex Lives of College Girls); their mother (Nicole Flender) and maternal grandmother both used to dance on Broadway, while theiruncle (Rodman Flender), directed Leprechaun 2. Whether this constitutes actual nepotism continues to be contested, years on from the viral “nepo baby” debate of 2022 – but it is increasingly incontrovertible that Chalamet has never had to jump through the same hoops as other aspiring young actors. According to a recent profile in Vogue, he did not even have to audition for his breakout role in 2017’s Call Me By Your Name. Having declared himself “in pursuit of greatness” at the Screen Actors Guild Awards early this year, he has also set some parameters. Asked by Vogue if he would ever consider TV, he responded “with a simple, self-assured ‘no’”. Chalamet went on to clarify that he was otherwise engaged, being “so fucking locked in” with film and “literally actively falling in love with this newfound creative structure, this discipline that I’ve only accrued through experience”.
5. … but he may also have a secret side hustle
After his Oscar-nominated turn as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (for which Chalamet enlisted the support of a team of dialect, guitar, harmonica, vocal and movement coaches), Chalamet is rumoured to be exploring his own musical stylings. This week he has been widely speculated to be the entity behind EsDeeKid, a rapper apparently from Liverpool, who recently landed a song in the top 10. Chalamet is known for having experimented with rapping as a teenager under the moniker “Lil Timmy Tim”, while EsDeeKid performances have coincided with screenings of Marty Supreme. At the very least, they appear to own the same scarf.
6. He got Gwynnie some street cred
Along with its “defining garment”, Marty Supreme has also given rise to one of 2025’s more winsome celebrity pairings in Chalamet and his co-star (and fellow nepo baby) Gwyneth Paltrow. Leaked photos of them kissing briefly set the internet alight last year, and were taken by some as indicative of how Paltrow was enticed to return to acting. She has claimed to have not known anything about Chalamet before they met on set, but told the Hollywood Reporter this week that she understood the broader interest: “Of course a fortysomething woman is going to be excited about a sex scene with Timothée Chalamet.” Paltrow’s own phone was “blowing up” with texts from friends about the paparazzi pictures, she added. “They’re all sending me these pictures, like, ‘Yesss, G.P.!’ Everyone was thrilled.” Her 19-year-old son, however, was “kind of mortified”.
7. Club Chalamet may soon expand
Paltrow recently told Vogue she was impressed to learn that Chalamet was dating a woman with children, declaring it “so cool” and “kind of punk rock”. But, she added: “I didn’t know [it was] Kylie Jenner.” Chalamet has been keeping up with that particular Kardashian (who has two children, aged seven and three, with rapper Travis Scott) since early 2023. He declined to comment on his relationship to Vogue: “I don’t say that with any fear, I just don’t have anything to say.” He did, however, admit that fatherhood “could be on the radar”. According to Vogue, Chalamet believes “procreation is the reason we’re here” and considers the thought of forgoing parenthood so as to have more time for other activities “bleak”. For now, according to Instagram, he is making do with a puppy. Schwap!
