Timothee Chalamet Jokes He Used ‘A Lot of Auto-Tune’ for ‘Wonka’
Timothée Chalamet joked that singing and dancing in his upcoming film Wonka didn’t come as naturally to him as fans might expect.
Chalamet, 27, walked a red carpet decorated with cotton candy clouds and chocolate props for the movie’s London premiere on Tuesday, November 28. When asked about his singing talents, Chalamet quipped to Extra, “I tried. It’s a lot of Auto-Tune. … No, I’m kidding.”
Chalamet portrays the titular character in Paul King’s Wonka, a prequel film based on Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Despite his family’s ties to the performing arts, nailing the movie’s choreography came with a few challenges.
“My mom is a dance teacher and my grandmother was a dancer, my sister’s a dancer, so I was always sort of around it,” Chalamet said. “But there’s a big difference between being around it and having to do it.”
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Embracing his musical side may have been new for Chalamet, but he looks back fondly on making Wonka. “I loved it,” he said. “It was a great learning experience.”
While Chalamet was more bashful about his ability to carry a tune, King recently compared his voice to that of the late Bing Crosby.
“[Chalamet]’s got a beautiful singing voice. … There’s quite a range because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion and he can do it all,” the director told Total Film Magazine in September, joking that his outward praise of Chalamet would make him “sound like a crazed fan.”
This won’t be the last time Chalamet flexes his musical muscles, as he is slated to play legendary artist Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s upcoming biopic, Going Electric. Chalamet previously told GQ that he worked with vocal coach Eric Vetro — who also teamed up with Austin Butler on the 2022 movie Elvis — for both Wonka and the Dylan flick.
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“He does everything with such a playful air, but there’s always that core of real seriousness where he is gonna nail it,” Vetro told GQ for Chalamet’s November 2023 cover story.
“It’s taking on all the characteristics of Dylan’s voice and his mannerisms and his speech patterns, and bringing that into the music — so that when you hear Timothée do the music, what you’re really getting is the essence of Bob Dylan,” Vetro added. “You’re not getting an impersonation of him. It’s breathing new life into that voice that we know so well.”
Chalamet stars alongside Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Grant in Wonka, which hits theaters on December 15. Throughout the film’s international press tour, Chalamet has embraced vibrant, Wonka-esque looks on the red carpet from a lavender Prada blazer in Tokyo to a pinstripe Alexander McQueen suit in London.
