Timothée Chalamet Crowns Interstellar His Favorite Project—Despite Limited Screen Time

Seventeen years into a career that kicked off with a one-off Law & Order (Season 19, Pledge), Timothee Chalamet has worked with a murderer’s row of filmmakers — Wes Anderson, Luca Guadagnino, Scott Cooper, James Mangold, Woody Allen, Denis Villeneuve, Greta Gerwig. So when he was asked to name his favorite project at a career retrospective this week, I didn’t expect him to single out a part where he was 12th on the call sheet.

Chalamet’s curveball pick

During a fan Q&A at his American Cinematheque retrospective — with Christopher Nolan on hand — the 30-year-old didn’t hesitate. His heart still belongs to Interstellar.

Though my role is not enormous in Interstellar — I think I was number 12 on the call sheet — this film came to me at a time in life, in career, where things were certainly not set yet. And it’s remained my favorite project I’ve ever been in. It’s the film I’ve seen the most of all the films ever made in human history [laughs]. And I’m just tremendously grateful to have been a part of this project... It came at a time where I really needed it.

That’s a pretty striking admission for someone who’s checked off the buzziest auteurs in modern cinema. But the timing makes sense: Interstellar landed when his career was still finding its shape, and those early breaks tend to stick in the ribs.

Where Interstellar fits into his story

Nolan’s 2014 space epic cast Chalamet as Young Tom Cooper, the teenage version of Casey Affleck’s character. The film’s spine is classic high-concept Nolan: Matthew McConaughey plays a former pilot-turned-farmer who heads into the cosmos searching for a new home for humanity, while time keeps tugging at the people he left behind. It’s one of Nolan’s grandest visual swings, and somehow it sits at 73% on Rotten Tomatoes — lower than you might expect for a tear-duct torpedo.

Nolan attended the retrospective to present Interstellar in 70mm, because of course he did. And Chalamet’s not done revisiting the past: he’s set to screen Call Me By Your Name with an audience at the Los Angeles Theatre on Friday, February 13.

Chalamet’s not alone on this hill

Another familiar Nolan collaborator recently picked Interstellar as the one he wishes he’d been in. Six Nolan films deep and fresh off a Best Actor Oscar for playing J. Robert Oppenheimer two years ago, Cillian Murphy explained why that one hits him right in the solar plexus:

I adore Interstellar just because I find it so emotional. I remember seeing it in the cinema when I had little kids. It just had a big impact on me. It broke my heart. I love watching his films when I’m not in them because you don’t have to freak out about the size of your ears, or whatever.

Small role or not, Interstellar clearly left a crater. Sometimes the movie that changes your life isn’t the one that changed your billing.