Timothée Chalamet Sees A 'Great Irony' In Working With Denis Villeneuve On Dune
Directors and actors can often develop unique and intense relationships due to the nature of their work together, and that seems to be true in the case of "Dune: Part One" and "Dune: Part Two" director Denis Villeneuve and star Timothée Chalamet. The two had a private little bubble of sorts on the sets of the films by exclusively speaking French to one another (Villeneuve is from Quebec, while Chalamet grew up in New York but summered in his native France) that hints at the closeness between them. In interviews together and on-set photos, they seem to have a lot of comfort with one another and a very familial dynamic, which translates well to what's needed of the relationship between a director and actor.
In an interview with the New York Times, Villeneuve and Chalamet discussed their friendship, which some have compared to the relationship between a father and son, and Villeneuve shared what made him feel like a proud papa. Chalamet also revealed the "great irony" in being directed by Villeneuve, who noted a kind of ironic thing himself in one big similarity between Chalamet and his character, Paul Atreides.
A bit of maturing between films
In the interview, Chalamet said that he found it was ironic working with "a master like Denis" because "it's not some pompous experience." Despite the director having made some pretty big, heady science fiction films, he's apparently pretty easy to work with and was even a bit protective of Chalamet while shooting the first film, which changed after seeing the actor again on the second. As Villeneuve explained:
"At the beginning, I had a lot of empathy for Timothée that he was stepping forward in a production of that scale. He's the age of my kids, and I was trying to find ways to take care of my new friend. Maybe I was paternalistic. [...] When he walked into the set of 'Part Two,' it was totally different. Much more confident. Much more solid. He was not impressed by the size of things anymore. [...] It's the first time that I had the chance to see an artist growing up in front of the camera. That's very moving."
It's kind of funny because there's definitely a maturity change in Paul between the two films as well, as he is forced to step up into his "chosen one" role. That doesn't go all that great for, well, anyone really (seriously, "Dune: Part Two" is bleak), but thankfully that's where the similarities end between Chalamet and Paul, other than their faces.
More maturing needed
While Chalamet definitely grew up a bit and experienced a lot that made him more jaded (in Villeneuve's words) between the first two "Dune" films, he would need to mature a bit more physically before he can shoot the planned threequel, "Dune: Messiah," if he's going to play the slightly more wizened Paul, who is 30 years old and the father of two children in the Frank Herbert novel that serves as the source material. While that's not that far off for Chalamet (he's 28 as of April 2024), he looks quite a bit younger than his actual years and it's unlikely that he'll look like a war-hardened father and dictator anytime soon. There's a reason he continues to play teenagers and early 20-somethings even though he's pushing his third decade on this planet, and it probably has something with his boyish looks. He may be more mature, but he still looks like just a kid, which may have contributed to Villeneuve's treating him like a son.
Chalamet really knocked it out of the park as Paul, so hopefully, he can return to play the character again in the next film. Just don't grow up too much, Timothée. No one wants you to go full Muad'dib.