Timothée Chalamet exclusively told E! News whether Johnny Depp—who portrayed Willy Wonka in the 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—influenced his own role in Wonka.
Timothée Chalamet already had the golden ticket.
The Wonka actor revealed that he didn’t seek advice from Johnny Depp after taking on the role of the titular candy man in upcoming movie.
“No, and I love that version,” Chalamet exclusively told E! News’ Erin Lim Rhodes on The Rundown, referring to Depp’s performance in 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “[That] version came out when I was about 10 or 11 years old, and I just thought it was very bold.”
But the movie that first welcomed him into a world of pure imagination? Well, that would be the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with Chalamet—who dated Lily-Rose Depp from 2018 to 2020—noting he loves Gene Wilder‘s iconic portrayal as well.
As he put it, “The Gene Wilder version I saw first technically, because my mom—that’s the one I grew up on.”
As for Depp, he took a different approach when starring in the Tim Burton adaptation nearly 20 years ago. “I imagined what George Bush would be like incredibly stoned,” he told Ellen DeGeneres in 2012, “and thus was born my version of Willy Wonka.”
But when it came time for Chalamet to don the beloved character’s velvet suit and top hat, he may have leaned on one of his own past roles instead: his rapping alter ego Lil Timmy Tim from his school days.
The 27-year-old joked that “no one” in his life gets to see Timmy Tim anymore, telling E! News that the persona is “locked away deep into a corner of the digital footprint and [a] deep, dark part of my mind.”
However, Chalamet’s vocal talents will be on full display in Wonka, the origin story of the chocolatier based on the 1964 novel by Roald Dahl. If you want to view paradise, Wonka hits theaters Dec. 15.
Catch more from the premiere of Wonka—co-starring Olivia Colman and Hugh Grant—on The Rundown on Snapchat.
Timothée Chalamet already had the golden ticket.
The Wonka actor revealed that he didn’t seek advice from Johnny Depp after taking on the role of the titular candy man in upcoming movie.
“No, and I love that version,” Chalamet exclusively told E! News’ Erin Lim Rhodes on The Rundown, referring to Depp’s performance in 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “[That] version came out when I was about 10 or 11 years old, and I just thought it was very bold.”
But the movie that first welcomed him into a world of pure imagination? Well, that would be the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with Chalamet—who dated Lily-Rose Depp from 2018 to 2020—noting he loves Gene Wilder‘s iconic portrayal as well.
As he put it, “The Gene Wilder version I saw first technically, because my mom—that’s the one I grew up on.”
As for Depp, he took a different approach when starring in the Tim Burton adaptation nearly 20 years ago. “I imagined what George Bush would be like incredibly stoned,” he told Ellen DeGeneres in 2012, “and thus was born my version of Willy Wonka.”