Timothée Chalamet got ‘Wonka’ role due to viral high school rap videos

Timothée Chalamet didn’t have to audition for his leading role in Wonka, director Paul King has revealed.

• READ MORE: What is ‘Wonka’ about?

Speaking to Rolling Stone, King said that Chalamet was offered the part because he already knew he could sing and dance, after seeing several videos of the actor performing onstage as a student at New York City’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art.

“It was a straight offer because he’s great, and he was the only person in my mind who could do it,” King said.

There a number of clips of Chalamet singing online, but it’s his rapping alter ego, Lil Timmy Tim, that really caught the world’s attention after one of his songs ‘Statistics’ was shown on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2017. You can watch the music video below.

King added that he “knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well”.

“I knew that was in his arsenal, but I didn’t know how good he was,” he said of the actor, who recorded music for Wonka at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London.

The first trailer for Wonka was released earlier this week, giving fans their first proper glimpse at Chalamet’s singing and dancing young chocolatier.

The prequel movie, which will be released in cinemas on December 15, is based on the character at the centre of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s most iconic children’s book.

A synopsis reads: “Starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, this irresistibly vivid and inventive big screen spectacle will introduce audiences to a young Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to the change the world one delectable bite at a time – proving that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.”

Alongside Chalamet, the star-studded cast includes Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant (as an Oompa-Loompa), Jim Carter and Matt Lucas.

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