"Wonka" director Paul King told Rolling Stone that Timothée Chalamet didn't audition for the titular role.
Instead, he checked out the actor's viral high school performances and 'Lil Timmy Tim' raps.
"I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well," King said.
Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Timothée Chalamet is set to show off his singing skills in two upcoming films: "Wonka," about the titular chocolate maker, and "The Complete Unknown," a Bob Dylan biopic.
But it turns out that the actor didn't have to audition to snag his role in the former. In fact, according to "Wonka" director Paul King, no one auditioned, despite reports that Warner Bros. considered Donald Glover, Ryan Gosling, and Ezra Miller before Chalamet was cast in 2021.
"It was a straight offer because he's great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it," King told Rolling Stone of casting Chalamet.
King added that he knew the actor could sing and dance thanks to the fact that several videos of a teenage Chalamet performing on stage as a student at New York City's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art exist on the internet.
While you can find clips of him singing in the musical "Sweet Charity," it's his rapping alter ego "Lil Timmy Tim" that really needs to be seen to be believed.
In the viral "Statistics" rap, which he reportedly handed in to his teacher for an assignment, a low-rise jeans-wearing Chalamet raps: "Let's do a problem, let us see, the probability you see me on TV/ One-zero-zero-zero trillion percent."
The video was popularized by Ellen DeGeneres, who asked Chalamet about it during an appearance on her talk show in November 2017.
King said 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 Chalamet, who recorded music for "Wonka" at the famed Abbey Road Studios in London, England.
The first trailer for "Wonka" was released on Tuesday.
The movie, which also stars Hugh Grant as a 20-inch Oompa Loompa, tells the origin story of the iconic character from Roald Dahl's beloved children's book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."