And Timothée Chalamet won the Oscar, not Timothée Chalamet?
After months of relentless campaigning, the young star’s dreams of taking home a small fortune on Sunday night could be dashed by the dynamic Michael B. Jordan.
A top Hollywood film awards expert says an “arrogant” Chalamet, 30, “fumbled the ball at the 5-yard line” even though it looked like he had won best actor for months.
Despite winning a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award, Chalamet’s Marty Supreme campaign failed, thanks in part to his infamous comment during a Variety/CNN panel on February 21: “I don’t want to do ballet or opera or something that’s like, ‘Hey, let’s keep this alive.’ Even stuff that no one cares about anymore.”
But sources say some Hollywood insiders were already fed up with Chalamet’s antics.
“It started with his Marty Supreme campaign – the arrogance of his costumes was more befitting a clown than an Oscar winner. No matter how far he goes for hype…he has a whiff of Oscar desperation,” the Hollywood source added.
Meanwhile, Jordan is a frontrunner for director Ryan Coogler’s vampire movie Sinners, in which he plays twins. The 39-year-old actor topped the Kalsi betting market after his surprise win at the Actor Award on March 1.
“Sinners” received 16 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Coogler, setting a record for the most nominations in Oscar history.
“Michael B. Jordan had a great performance,” Debra Birnbaum, editor-in-chief of award-tracking website Gold Derby, told Page Six. “So the momentum is on his side.”
An awards expert said that at the beginning of awards season, “people initially weren’t sure if[MBJ]would be nominated.” “He was on everyone’s ‘maybe’ list, or even not on the list at all.”
But slowly and steadily, Jordan’s understated charm and humility took hold.
“Michael B. Jordan is charming, humble, and impeccably dressed, and he plays it perfectly in every movie,” said a leading awards strategist. “He campaigned for the movie and the other cast (members) for Ryan. But he hasn’t gotten much attention himself. He hasn’t given many interviews.”
Birnbaum said the acting awards mark a turning point.
“What was interesting was the warmth towards MBJ from Viola on stage (Davis, who presented and said he was ‘shining like new gold’) to everyone in the room,” she noted. “He has been an actor all his life and there was a lot of support for him.
“If you were an Oscar voter and hadn’t yet submitted your ballot, that moment could have influenced your vote.”
Jordan’s friends say it’s about time.
“He’s had a 20-year career, so it was great to see that reflected,” said a close friend of the star. He was just a child when he appeared on the hit show “The Wire,” and went on to win accolades for both blockbusters like “Black Panther” and arthouse films like “Fruitvale Station.”
“If he wins[the Oscar]it will honor a body of work and that means a lot to him,” the friend added. “He’s a very good guy and people are rooting for him. He’s one of those guys that everyone loves.”
Meanwhile, sources say Chalamet’s “greatness” and his gonzo quest to produce what he calls “top-level ST” is having a negative impact on some people.
After her husband Jesse Plemons was belittled for his work on Bugonia, actress Kirsten Dunst appeared to poke fun at Chalamet, posting a photo of Plemons in the film with the caption, “Top level women.”
Chalamet embarked on a media tour for “Marty” dressed as his sassy character, table tennis champion Marty Moser, decked out head to toe in Marty’s signature orange outfit.
The star has drafted his billionaire girlfriend Kylie Jenner, who will appear with him on Sunday’s red carpet, to help sell his limited-edition Marty Supreme streetwear. When fellow celebrities, from Justin Bieber, Frank Ocean and Tom Brady to Michael Phelps, Stephen Curry and ballet dancer Misty Copeland, shared images of themselves wearing Marty clothing, it quickly gained attention and was resold online for more than $10,000.
“Timmy is part of the Kardashian zeitgeist,” one of Hollywood’s longtime producers told Page Six. “When you’re in that world, so much is written,” and the public and Oscar voters may be weary of it.
A source previously told Page Six that the actor was “Kardashianizing.”
This may have piqued the interest of Academy voters.
“The whole Marty story was being made into something so big that Timmy was leading the marketing campaign and trying to put himself in front of it,” the producer said. “So this was partially his fault and then the media lifted him up even more. But he understands how to manipulate the game and play.”
Chalamet pulled increasingly wild publicity stunts, including “leaking” Zoom calls with staff from the film’s studio A24 and painting the Statue of Liberty orange.
“He seems very arrogant,” said a Hollywood source close to Chalamet. “Then you realize he was playing a character, and it’s not that genius when most people don’t even know what the movie is about.”
But Chalamet’s campaign seemed to be paying off when he won a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award in January.
The New Yorker, who has been acting since childhood, has never made it a secret that he covets an Oscar. He is the youngest actor since Marlon Brandon to be nominated for Best Actor three times, but has yet to win.
“People may call me a hard worker and I may say some crazy things, but I’m the one actually doing it here,” he told director Richard Curtis in a February speech. Still, “sometimes I feel like my quest is being misunderstood.”
And aside from the ballet backlash that began in earnest after the March 5 Oscar voting deadline, “Timothy has a lot of factors working against him, including the fact that the academy rarely anoints actors this young,” Birnbaum said. “There’s a message in ‘Sinners,’ but Timothy’s film doesn’t have that kind of momentum.”
According to sources, Chalamet is not the only one who seriously wants to win this year.
“I’ve never seen anyone as desperate for an Oscar as Teyana Taylor,” one Hollywood agent told Page Six about the Best Supporting Actress nominee. “Her looks are over the top. She turned this year’s awards show into a Paris runway. She did everything for the campaign.”
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell were also reportedly in a heated battle over their daughter Kate Hudson’s Best Actress award for “Song San Bleu,” according to marketing experts who arrange campaign screenings. “They did well in all the reviews. They weren’t going to go down without a fight… There’s zero chance of winning against her.” For Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”), this reignited her stalled career. ”
Others seem less stressed.
Sean Penn, who has won twice for Best Supporting Actor for “One Battle After Another,” is considered to be a favorite, but Page Six reports that he may not attend. “He really doesn’t care if he wins,” one big-time director said of Hollywood Gossip. Even if he wasn’t at the Dolby Theater on Sunday night, a friend of the star said, “His work in the movie is incredible. I think he’s going to win.”
Before Jordan, Chalamet’s main competition was initially thought to be Leonardo DiCaprio, who gave a great performance as a former revolutionary in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which is competing for Best Picture and Best Director.
Sources say DiCaprio, who dislikes campaigning for awards, is filming Martin Scorsese’s new film “What Happens at Night” in Prague and plans to attend the Oscar ceremony.
Still, “I don’t think the Best Actor award is locked in,” the producer insisted, noting that the Screen Actors Guild, which hosts the awards with about 160,000 American members, is a far cry from the Academy, which has about 11,000 voters, many of them international.
And Birnbaum is happy about that. “Honestly, this is the kind of exciting night we were hoping for.”
Additional reporting by Merle Ginsberg
