He may be one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood right now, but Timothée Chalamet has admitted that his star power was called into question in the early years of his career.

In fact, the Oscar nominee has claimed that he repeatedly lost out on roles due to his appearance before making it big.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Timothée shared his opinion that he and Bob Dylan – who he portrays in the biopic A Complete Unknown – were both forced to forge their own way in their respective industries.

“If I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent, things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body’,” he recalled.

Timothée added: “I had an agent that called me and basically said, ‘You’ve got to put on weight,’ – not aggressively but… you know.”

While he said Bob Dylan found his way into the music scene via “folk music”, Timothée recalled that he got his start in “personalised movies” like Call Me By Your Name, Beautiful Boy and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird and Little Women.

These days, Timothée is known for his work in big-budget films like the Dune franchise and the movie musical Wonka, although he did reunite with Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino in 2022 for the offbeat horror romance Bones And All, in which he and Taylor Russell played a pair of cannibals.

A Complete Unknown is slated for release in the UK in January.

Help and support:

• Beat, Adult Helpline: 0808 801 0677 and Youthline: 0808 801 0711 or email help@beateatingdisorders.org.uk (adults) fyp@beateatingdisorders.org.uk (youth support) 
  Samaritans, open 24 hours a day, on 116 123
  Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393