Timothée Chalamet described a rallying email he received from Tom Cruise after the two star actors met.
The email came up in an interview with GQ after Chalamet revealed he was also inspired by Austin Butler’s commitment to “Dune Part Two.” Cruise also encouraged Chalament to hone his skills.
“After I met Tom Cruise, right after finishing the first ‘Dune,’ he sent me the most wonderfully inspiring email,” Chalamet said. It included a Rolodex of sorts of all the experts he might need for stunt training. A motorcycle coach. A helicopter coach. “He basically said, in Old Hollywood, you would be getting dance training and fight training, and nobody is going to hold you to that standard today. So it’s up to you. The email was really like a war cry.”
Chalamet revealed that he saw “Top Gun: Maverick” eight times while filming “Part Two” in the summer and fall of 2022. He even bought out a whole Budapest movie theater at $2 a seat to take the whole cast and crew to see the long-awaited sequel film.
“’Top Gun’ was just hugely inspiring to me last summer when we were making Dune,” he said. “Some of the crew were kind of scoffing at going, but I just thought it was one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen.”
In the interview, Chalamet also revealed he worked with Butler’s “Elvis” team in preparation for his portrayal of musician Bob Dylan in the 2022 biopic directed by James Mangold.
“You asked me what I’ve been doing in LA this year?” Chalamet said. “I’ve basically been working with his entire Elvis team for my Dylan prep. There’s a wonderful dialect coach named Tim Monich. Vocal coach named Eric Vetro. Movement coach named Polly Bennett. I just saw the way he committed to it all—and realized I needed to step it up.”
Chalamet will also showcase his musical abilities with seven numbers in the upcoming “Wonka” film for Warner Bros.