Timothée Chalamet Paid Out of Pocket for SNL — Here’s What It Cost Him
Hosting SNL doesn’t come cheap—just ask Dune star Timothée Chalamet, who says he dipped into his own pocket to pull off the show and is now revealing how much it cost him.
Hosting Saturday Night Live is one thing. Deciding you also want to be the musical guest and then paying for the whole production yourself? That is a different level of commitment. Timothée Chalamet says he did exactly that to push his Bob Dylan movie.
What he said, and where he said it
Chalamet told a packed crowd at London’s Prince Charles Cinema on Sunday that he shelled out serious cash to make his SNL music moment happen. He was onstage in conversation with Richard Curtis (yes, the Love Actually filmmaker), talking about how he markets his films and why he went all-in on SNL back in January.
"I spent over six figures out of my pocket to do the SNL performance."
How it came together
According to Chalamet, Lorne Michaels reached out with the usual question: do you want to host SNL? Chalamet said yes — but only if he could also perform music tied to his Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. He pushed until the show agreed, and wound up doing both jobs on the January 25, 2025 episode.
He didn’t just strum a verse and call it a day either. He performed three Dylan tracks — Outlaw Blues, Three Angels, and Tomorrow Is a Long Time — while also appearing in sketches throughout the night. Not a typical move for an actor with no record deal, which is kind of the point here.
The price tag and who usually pays it
Chalamet says the 'over six figures' came out of his own bank account and covered the production for his musical set: the band, the build, and all the staging that usually gets picked up by an artist’s label. In this case, there is no label — just Chalamet determined to do Dylan his way on live TV.
For the record, Saturday Night Live has not responded to Entertainment Weekly’s request for comment on any of this.
- When: January 25, 2025 episode of SNL
- What he did: Hosted and served as musical guest
- Songs performed: Outlaw Blues, Three Angels, Tomorrow Is a Long Time
- Why it cost so much: He paid for the band, set construction, and performance production himself
- Where he revealed it: Prince Charles Cinema in London, during a talk with Richard Curtis
- FYI: Chalamet is nominated for Best Actor at the 2026 Oscars for Marty Supreme
Not the cheapest promo run, but it definitely gets your movie — and your Dylan impression — in front of a lot of people all at once.