Why Dune Director Denis Villeneuve Was Dead Set On Casting Timothée Chalamet
Looking back at it from 2024, the decision to cast Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides in "Dune" seems pretty unambiguously wise. Not only is this guy's resume absolutely padded by this point, with his standout performances in critical darlings like "Little Women," "The French Dispatch," and "Bones and All," but he's also proven himself to be a reliable box office draw with recent musical prequel "Wonka." But back in 2018, when the first rumors of Chalamet playing Paul started flying around, the decision was a lot more questionable. Chalamet's biggest lead role at that point was "Call Me By Your Name," a soulful romantic drama that won him plenty of acclaim, but didn't exactly showcase his abilities at playing the terrifying hyper-intelligent tyrant that Paul would have to become.
Luckily, Chalamet didn't have to deal with as much homophobia as you might expect. Whereas Heath Ledger was dismissed by a lot of comic book fans as "that guy who played a gay cowboy" when he was first cast as the Joker, the internet had grown up slightly in the decade since. With "Dune," the backlash to Chalamet was almost entirely about his age and size. Fans had no doubt that Chalamet could play the young Paul of the first movie, but they were concerned that the famously babyfaced actor might not be capable of turning into the cold, intimidating leader he needs to become in "Part Two."
Luckily for the young star, "Dune" director Denis Villeneuve had no such concerns. In fact, in a 2021 interview, Villeneuve described Chalamet as his first and only choice for the role. "It was like we had witnessed the birth of Beatlemania. It was crazy," Villeneuve said. "Timothée has that kind of charismatic power. And I needed that for the audience to believe this young man will be able to raise and lead an army, and then lead a whole planet."
No doubts for Denis
In another interview in 2022, the director elaborated even further: "I was not afraid for a second that [Chalamet] would not be able to carry the weight of the project ... I needed an old soul in the body of a teenager, and he was the perfect actor to bring that."
What also helped for Villeneuve were the "beautiful, aristocratic features" of Chalamet's face, not to mention Chalamet's already growing status as a young heartthrob — not much different from where Leonardo DiCaprio was 25 years ago. Villeneuve was so enamored with Chalamet, in fact, that the entire casting process for the first movie was centered around him. As the director told Newsweek in 2021:
"At first we started with Timothée and then we chose who Timothée's mother will be. Then it was who Timothée's father will be — Paul Atreides' father ... We built the family, that family, and from there we expanded and went to explore the characters around this family. It was like building slowly a world, but starting with Paul as the center of everything."
In other words, the entire main cast of "Dune" would probably be different if Chalamet hadn't been involved. This is his franchise almost as much as it is Villeneuve's, and it should continue to be so as we head into the climactic "Part Three." Will Chalamet be able to play an older, weathered Paul Atreides? There's been no reason to doubt him yet.