Timothée Chalamet Strives to Be ‘the Hardest Working Man’ on Set

"I wanted to do a great fucking job," the "A Complete Unknown" star said in a recent interview. "Why do this if you’re not going to go as hard as possible?”

Timothée Chalamet hasn’t paused for a second between starring in “Dune: Part Two,” “Wonka,” and “A Complete Unknown” in 2024, plus filming “Marty Supreme.”

The actor said during Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast that he just might be the most booked and busy star in Hollywood, especially given his immersive dedication to roles like when portraying Bob Dylan for biopic “A Complete Unknown.”

“You’re never supposed to say you’re competitive but…there’s been a lot of music biopics and I wanted to do a great fucking job. I love Bob Dylan, I love this artist. None of this is for granted,” Chalamet said.

And the “grit” of working on films, rather than TV, is what drives Chalamet.

“There is this little misconception about actors too. You can have a cushy job on a TV show. If you give a shit about your work, it could be a great lifestyle. You’re making like high six figures, low seven figures, and you’re just showing up when you want,” he said. “If you give a fuck about what you’re doing…these are long ass days. These are 14-hour days, six days a week, for three months. I know people got it way harder but I want to feel that grit. I hope people don’t laugh at it. I feel like I’m the hardest working man. Maybe I shouldn’t say that. Why do this if you’re not going to go as hard as possible?”

He continued to “go as hard” as he could for Josh Safdie’s upcoming feature “Marty Supreme” in which Chalamet plays a ping-pong champion. Gwyneth Paltrow co-stars.

“Basically I shot this movie ‘Marty Supreme’ all fall,” Chalamet said. “This crazy director, Josh Safdie, it was kind of that [‘Uncut Gems’] energy, that chaotic thing. It wasn’t like a low energy shoot. This was like 16-hour days for three months. Then I went right into this [‘A Complete Unknown’ press tour].”

Safdie also wanted Chalamet to appear to have smaller eyes while in character, and had the actor impair his vision with accessories.

“On ‘Marty Supreme,’ I’m wearing contacts because he wanted my eyes to be little,” Chalamet said. “He gave me real glasses that fuck my eyes up and I’m wearing contacts underneath to offset what the glasses are doing. My vision was basically fucked up until a day ago.”

The film additionally employed the “‘Forrest Gump’ ping pong coaches” for the feature.