{"id":234005,"date":"2019-10-08T23:48:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T03:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=234005"},"modified":"2019-10-08T23:48:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T03:48:09","slug":"timothee-chalamet-grows-up-with-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/08\/timothee-chalamet-grows-up-with-the-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Timothee Chalamet grows up with ‘The King’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chalamet had been doing mostly present day or recent past films and liked the notion of being in something completely different. (File Photo<\/a>: tchalamet\/Instagram<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VENICE, Italy \u2014 There aren’t many directors who would be happy about a film taking nearly seven years to get off the ground, but that’s precisely the case with David Michod’s \u201cThe King.\u201d The long development process, delays and studio changes for his and Joel Edgerton’s vision for a Henry V film had a silver lining. By the time they were ready to go, an exciting new talent had emerged: Timothee Chalamet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a beautifully fortuitous thing that it took us that long to get made,\u201d Michod said last month after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival . He looked over at his young star and laughed. Had the film been made when he and Edgerton wrote it, not only would Chalamet not have been on their radar, he also would have been only 12 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe King\u201d opens in select theatres Friday before landing on Netflix on Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

Still, it wasn’t even a given that Chalamet and Michod would cross paths. But a friend suggested that he see \u201cCall Me By Your Name,\u201d thinking maybe the \u201ckid in it\u201d would be good for the part of Hal, the reluctant heir to the throne who will become King Henry V. Michod went in a little skeptical \u2014 people are always making suggestions to him and most don’t result in anything \u2014 but he had a bit of a revelation watching the tender, sun-soaked Italian romance.<\/p>\n

\u201cTHAT’s the version of ‘The King’ I want to make,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved the idea of taking that kid from that movie and starting ‘The King’ with him and turning him into something else \u2014 hardening him and making him almost tyrannical … (But) I never thought I’d be casting a 22-year-old New Yorker to play Henry V.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalamet had been doing mostly present day or recent past films and liked the notion of being in something completely different. He also latched on to the \u201callegory\u201d about Elio, his \u201cCall Me By Your Name\u201d character. So he said yes, days before he’d find out he’d gotten his first Oscar nomination for that film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere felt like a beautiful irony and challenge in that I was a young American playing a historical British figure, directed by and working with a bunch of Australians,\u201d Chalamet said.<\/p>\n

Or, Michod chimed in, a \u201crecipe for disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film is an ambitious melding of historical fact and fiction, loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s \u201cHenry V\u201d and \u201cHenry IV\u201d parts one and two, following Hal from his drunken days in Eastcheap to his early days as King of England, a position he never wanted and takes reluctantly when his tyrannical father, Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn), dies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, ‘Oh wow this could be really done in a way that’s true to the plays and true to the history,\u201d’ Chalamet said. \u201cPeople wielding these positions of power often were unusually young.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cswords and horses\u201d genre was a bit of a departure for Michod too. He made his name with the Australian crime drama \u201cAnimal Kingdom\u201d and has never been drawn to fantasy endeavours like \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d or \u201cLord of the Rings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not because I hate it, it’s just because I don’t understand how I’m supposed to engage with it. This is not that, but it lends itself to tropes that are very similar,\u201d Michod said. \u201cWe actually know so little about the Middle Ages. We have a lot of documentary fact, but I don’t know what it would be like to be a person in the Middle Ages and that almost makes it a kind of fantasy. But that’s what makes it exciting too: How do we go about turning this into something that feels real?\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his longtime friend and collaborator Edgerton, who also plays a humorous Falstaff in the film, set off to make something as grounded as they could. That meant sporting heavy armour and suffering through the Hungarian heat for the two and a half weeks it would take to shoot the Battle of Agincourt.<\/p>\n

The intensity of the battle was a new experience for Chalamet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s an amazing thing that happens,\u201d Chalamet said. \u201cSometimes with long takes in movies, when there’s a lot of physicality required, any sense of acting goes out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the struggle you see on screen as he’s huffing and puffing his way through the mud in armour with a sword is pretty real. Was it at all fun though dressing up and play fighting?<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching it was fun,\u201d Chalamet said, laughing.<\/p>\n

He also had to cut his hair into a more period-specific bowl cut, which had Chalamet’s large and vocal internet fan base in a tizzy when he started making public appearances without his signature locks.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid was adamant, and so right,\u201d Chalamet said. \u201cIt would have felt like a cheat if there wasn’t the appropriate hairstyle. It sounds silly but I hope people don’t judge it. It is just hair at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michod chimed in: \u201cIt’s just hair but it was important. It felt really important for the character and for Timmy as an actor to have a transformation, to go from that kid from ‘Call Me By Your Name’ and become something else.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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